Double
by Nicolkacola
Summary: He had wanted to protect her, but in reality all he was doing was hurting both himself and her. Now she was back to stay and this time, they both would need protection from what was about to come.
1. Back

Hello :o)

Disclaimer: I do not have any affiliation with Teen Wolf or the characters, nor do I own them. I do, however, like the show very much and run a blog on it, as well as have a follow from Shantal Rhodes on twitter #swaggie

I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think!

* * *

We haven't talked.

In months.

I don't mind

Okay I do. It sucks. A lot. But life goes on and sometimes the people you care about are the ones that you have to let go. I learned that the hard way I suppose.

I just miss him you know? How can't you miss someone like him? But he begged me to stay away. "Please" he pleaded and I complied, even though every inch of me screamed "No, I'm not staying away."

I cried that night for the first time since I was 9 I think; that was also the year I had just learned my dad had been killed. I don't want to get into that though. I cried and i slammed my fist against my bedroom wall. Both times.

I thought I broke the wall.

I didn't.

I kind of wish I did though.

My mom just came into my room, pulled me into her warm body and kissed my head the same way she did when my father was killed. She hushed me softly and said "One day it'll make sense, I promise" and I believed her.

I didn't know how it would make sense but I believed it would.

It was a weird feeling going back to high school today. Part of me wanted it to start and the other part of me didn't. I had left Beacon Hills for a beautiful island where I spent my summer vacation with my mother's parent in a small cottage down by the sea. It was my home away from home.

And when I was just laying on my back in the water and drowning out the sounds of the islanders, I felt at ease. It was peaceful just listening to my steady heartbeat. It was like my body just blended into the water and I felt at one with everything.

Now it was back to high school. Not exactly a 'fun' transition.

Don't get me wrong though. I'm a very optimistic person and very positive in fact. Heck, I got an award for being the happy go-lucky kid in my middle school. But just thinking about the past 6 months gets me sad. Life's changed a lot and I'm not a big fan of change. Especially when it's bad change. Then again is change ever good?

"Honey, breakfast is ready."

My mother's angelic voice stirred me from my thoughts and back to reality.

"Coming Mama" I shouted while pulling a plain, red t shirt over my head.

I looked at myself in the mirror and smiled - a real smile. Over the course of the summer, my brown hair had gotten lighter so now it was a golden brown and my complexion had darkened a little to a sunny olive skin tone. And when I looked at my eyes in the mirror, they looked different. Happier. Brighter.

"Too plain." I mumbled to myself. I pulled the red shirt off of me and looked into my closet. Since it was the first day of school, I wanted to dress nicely and then maybe for the rest of the year just coming in my pajamas wouldn't be a bad idea. I think everyone in my school had that mindset.

A grey flowy tank-top caught my eye and I grabbed it and pulled it over my head. It was a gentle grey-ish silver color with silhouettes of three small birds on the bottom right corner flying upwards. I grabbed a pair of denim shorts and easily pulled them on, before beginning to put on my white converse.

"Honey!" My mom yelled a bit louder this time.

I grabbed my book bag and ran out the room and down the stairs. My mom was standing in the kitchen, reading a newspaper and drinking a cup of green tea. I kissed her on the cheek, as I set my book bag down and started eating breakfast.

"So first day of school, huh?"

In between mouthfuls of my spinach omelette, I tried to sputter out a yes. That didn't work so I settled on nodding my head up and down.

"Any cute boys this year?" she said slyly, peering over her newspaper.

I almost choked on my food. "Considering the fact that I tower over half the school's population and no one seems to be interested in talking to me anymore, I'd say a big large N-O is the answer." I was only a few inches shy of being 6 feet tall and I found that a lot of guys were intimidated by my height.

Oh well.

"Baby, don't say that. I, for one, think you're going to have a good day. A great day. I promise." She smiled at me and did a silly face right after that which caused me to smile and laugh. Yet the way she had said that and her tone...something was definitely up but I chose not to question her about it.

"You're right you kn-"

"I always am" she smugly replied as she took a sip of her tea. "Always."

Yet as I looked up at the Beacon Hills High School sign and took in the huge school itself, I felt overwhelmed. This morning's conversation had settled my nerves and I was excited to go back, but now seeing the school up front and personal, the excitement wore away.

I squeezed the straps of my book bag and took in one final breath. As I reached for the door handle, someone else's hand reached for it too and they opened the door, allowing me to go first. I looked up and could feel heat rising to my cheeks as some new cute boy grinned at me.

"Thanks" I mumbled, as I entered the school.

"No problem" he said, smiling again as he entered right behind me. "Oh I was wondering if you could help me too."

"Yeah sure. What's up?"

"I'm looking for room 201A. I'm new so I don't really know how to get around here. I thought maybe you could help me?"

He had such an innocent, child-like essence to him. Quite adorable.

"Oh well I have class in that room right now so I'll take you there" I could note the excitement in my own voice talking to the boy. I guess I was happy that someone was finally talking to me and it was a really cute boy too. The latter part made it even better.

He ran his hand through his soft brown hair and bit on his lip. "Are we going now?"

Duh. "Right, sorry. Yeah we're going, we're going."

We walked through the halls and then up the stairs. And all throughout our way to the classroom, I could feel the stares of everyone. And I wasn't exaggerating. I saw people glancing and talking; Mindy and Cathy eyed me up and down and Bryan raised his eyebrows. I wasn't sure if the stares were good or bad but I decided not to let them affect me. I was tired of letting things get to me too much.

"So what's your name?" he asked.

"Sa-"

"Take a seat please. You too sir" Mrs. Hess, the Science teacher said as we walked inside the classroom. She didn't even recognize me despite the fact that I came to her after school tutoring sessions almost every day last year. She even got me a small gift at the end of the year as she had found me to be her favorite student.

Wow, I guess things _had_ changed.

Packed. It was all packed. Well with the exception of a few seats. I could feel all eyes on me. My throat got dry and my chest got tight. I saw a seat in the middle row, third one from the front and motioned for the boy to follow me. As I sat down, a few of the guys behind me moved up a seat each. Turning around, I looked at them all in confusion and watched as each of them gave me a wink.

_Um okay..._

I gave a sympathetic look to the boy, shrugging my shoulders as I watched him sit down in a seat near the window, shaking his head and mouthing "It's alright", before settling into his seat.

"So today class, we will be talking about our plans for the year in terms of homework, assignments and projects. There will be -"

"Psst."

I turned around and raised my eyebrows. "Yeah?"

I remembered him. Bryan, a random jock on the lacrosse team from last year who tripped me in the cafeteria.

Twice.

Asshole.

"So I was thinking you and me, me and yo-"

I didn't bother listening to him anymore. I turned around in my seat.

Jerk.

"I will be assigning a project tomorrow which will be due in a few weeks time. I will be picking the groups as well."

Half the class groaned.

I scribbled some notes down just for the heck of it when I noticed something out of the corner of my right eye. Not something, someone. My heartbeat picked up.

"I'm going to call out attendance so make sure you are listening for your name."

"Lora Asfor" Mrs. Hess said aloud. A girl in the first row raised her hand.

As she continued down the list, I eventually found out the cute boy's name that had held the door open for me - Matthew Henz. It fit him quite well.

"Stilinski."

My breathing hitched as my earlier suspicions had come true. The boy to the right of me raised his hand and quickly put it back down. I turned my head ever so slightly to look at him and saw him looking back at me. I quickly looked down at my notebook and began fiddling with the pencil. It was then that I realized Mrs. Hess hadn't called my name.

I raised my hand. "Mrs. Hess?"

"Yes, dear?"

"You didn't call my name."

"Are you sure? I called everyone's names on the roster. Are you sure you are in this class?"

"Positive. It says so on my schedule."

"Okay darling, what's your name?"

She still didn't recognize me. No one did. Had I changed that much? Was I gone too long? Did people think I was dead?

My throat choked up and I found it hard to say my name. The whole class had turned around and everyone's eyes were on me. I took a deep breath. Everyone was waiting.

"I'm Samantha. Samantha Kerr."

A pencil dropped. Stiles' pencil to be exact.

"Samantha?" Mrs. Hess. "Why darling I'm so sorry. I didn't even recognize you. Why yes you are here on the roster. I seemed to have skipped you. I'm so terribly sorry."

A ghost. She looked like she had seen a ghost.

"Is everything alright, darling?" She asked. Her face was filled with concern.

I raised my eyebrows. 'Um no because my "best friend" hasn't talked to me in 3 months and everyone won't stop staring at me. Fine and you?'

I didn't say that though.

"It's alright Mrs. Hess" I said softly before looking down at my notebook to block out the class. I could hear everyone beginning to chatter. I heard the 'No way that's her', 'I love her top', and my personal favorite 'I thought she died'.

Bryan leaned over to his friend on his left and tried to whisper but failed miserably. "Shit, she got hot."

I smiled to myself then I realized it was Bryan who said that and my smile turned into a grimace. Well this day was certainly going to be interesting.

I remembered the pencil was still on the floor and leaned over and grabbed it, reaching over and putting it on Stiles' desk.

"Thanks" he mumbled, not even making eye contact.

That actually hurt. He didn't even want to look at me or say my name. You would think he would care somewhat considering the fact a few months ago he was holding me tight by the shoulders and begging me to 'Stay away'.

Alright.

The lunch room was packed. Everyone had their groups and it wasn't like I was going to randomly sit down and expect the group of friends to accept me. Maybe...yeah no.

I made my way over to the library and took a seat at a small, wooden table with 4 chairs. The library wasn't packed as no one was in need of studying just yet - it was the first day of school after all.

First period Science had gone by fairly fast. People still turned around and gave me looks but I had gotten more used to it by the end of the period. English was English. Stiles was in that class too, of course. And as for Math, I sat behind Lydia and to the left of Allison who both didn't notice me either.

I pinched myself a few times to see if I had been dreaming. 1. I hurt myself. 2. I wasn't dreaming.

But I still couldn't understand why no one had noticed me. It's not like I was invisible.

As I settled my books down, I noticed someone sit across from me.

I looked up and recognized the familiar face. "Hey Matthew"

"Hey Samantha! You don't mind if I sit here, right? 'Cause if you do I can totally sit somewhere else or fi-"

I laughed softly. He was a cutie. "No, I don't mind at all. Please sit and call me Sam. Samantha makes me feel like I'm an old lady or some business woman."

We both sat down and I watched him open up his bag and take out a trigonometry textbook. "Ah trig. Good luck with that."

"I can't wait! That was sarcasm by the way."

"I figured." We laughed. "I didn't like trig. at all. I kind of slept in that class all year."

"That's gonna be me this year but my parents are hounding on me to do well so I think I'll sleep in here instead."

"Right. How do you like the school so far?" I asked, interested to see what he thought about it.

"It's nice so far. My old school was okay, but there were always a lot of fights and weird things happening. This doesn't happen here too often, does it?"

_Irony._

I bit my lip and lied. "Yeah no, this is a _really safe_ school. Weird things happen here once in a full moon. I mean blue moon."

"Well that's good then," he commented.

I smiled at him again and pulled out my English notebook. Mr. Itzin had already assigned our class a typical "What did you do over summer vacation?" essay due tomorrow. I figured starting on it now would cut down the time I'd have to do it at home so maybe I could go out tonight.

"Itzin's essay?" Matthew pointed out.

"Yeah. I figure if I start now, I'll save myself the time at home." I explained as I started to write down my heading.

"I would start now but I have to do a whole page of trig. problems already" he replied, opening up the trig textbook to a whole page of 30 or so problems.

"Wow I'm sorry for you, my friend. My deepest condolences go out to you."

"I'm glad my mom's a math professor or else I'd probably be sitting here close to tears." he joked.

"That was me last year. If you want, I still have an extra box of tissues, especially for trig, saved at home."

He chuckled and rubbed his rosy cheek, "Nah I think I'm good. Thanks though."

He was cute. Really cute. He reminded me of - never mind. But he was cute. He had soft brown hair and these striking blue icy eyes. His cheeks were a soft pink hue and his nose was dusted in small freckles. He wore a blue shirt with some sort of symbol on it and a few bracelets around his wrist.

'I should stop staring' I reminded myself.

He leaned over, ushering me to lean in too with his finger. And so I did. Our faces were a few centimeters apart. "Do people always stare at you?"

"What?"

He licked his lips. "We've been sitting here for the past few minutes and it's just, that ummm, a lot of people have been staring at us. Well not us, I think more or less you. Is that normal?"

"I don't know? I mean, people have been staring at me a lot today but I don't really know why. It's not like I'm a new student or something. I was gone this summer so maybe some people thought I died?" I whispered, taking glances at people across the library. He was right, they were staring at me. I watched as a group of girls passed by slowly and listened in to hear their comments.

"No way that's her. Didn't she die?" one said.

The other chimed in. "No, stupid. She didn't die if she's here. Is she going out with the new kid though. They'd be really cute together."

I blushed at that. "She should go out with him. If she doesn't I will.

Amen to the first part.

"Yeah right" A fourth one mused. "I thought she and Stiles were a thing though. What happened?"

"I don't know. Maybe he cheated on her or she cheated? Whatever the case, it doesn't seem like they're close now."

"I overheard Bryan talking to his friends this morning about how he tried asking her out but she ignored him." Another one of the girls added.

"Good for her, Bryan's a jerk."

"Uh Sam" Matthew's voice brought me back to 'reality' and as I tilted my head back to face him, I could feel the nervousness once again set into my stomach. Our faces were mere inches apart and I could see the smallest of freckles on his nose. His lips were so soft and waiting to be kissed.

"Sorry, I was just uh listening to those girls to see why they were staring."

He leaned back into his chair, as did I. "You mean the girls all the way over there? You must have good hearing then."

I looked at where he was looking. They were near the other side of the library, about to head out the doors. "Wow um I guess I do have good hearing?"

It came out more like a question as I sat back down in my seat and pondered.

"And as for the people thinking you died, I'm glad you didn't."

I looked up at him and he blushed. "Yeah, me too."

"Stiles, are you serious?"

"What?" he exclaimed, biting on his nails fervently.

"It's been 3 months since the incident. She's safe. Why don't you talk to her again?" Scott motioned to Sam sitting at the table. "I miss talking to her and I know for a fact you miss her too."

"I do not" Stiles mumbled, pacing back and forth.

"It's driving you mad, isn't it?"

Stiles stopped pacing and looked at Scott. "What is?"

Scott smirked and looked over at the table. "The fact that she's sitting with someone, a guy, that's making her smile and it isn't you."

"Shut up." Stiles muttered, resuming his pacing.

"Why don't you talk to her? She's not going to hurt you. I'm sure she's upset but she has to understand what happened."

"That's the thing dude, I can't talk to her. You should've seen her that night I told her to stay away. And when I let go of her body, I could see the way she stiffened and her eyes got so cold, I felt shivers up and down my body. I ruined her."

"Stiles" Scott said softly, placing his hand on his friends' shoulder. "You didn't ruin her. The accident, it wasn't your fault."

"Screw the accident, it's not that. It's just telling her to stay away and leaving her all alone, that's my fault. I shouldn't have done that."

"You were only protecting her" Scott pointed out.

"I could've done it better. I could've stayed with her or held her and not let go." Stiles stared at the ground.

"Oh hey Sam" Scott exclaimed. Stiles' neck shot up so fast he could've gotten whiplash.

She listened to him and stayed away.

Now she was back.

* * *

Note: I have a tendency to start writing stories or fics and get very discouraged so here's to hoping I don't do that this time. Thanks for reading. Have a wonderful day :o)


	2. Run

Disclaimer: I do not have any affiliation with Teen Wolf or the characters, nor do I own them. I only own my characters.

Thank you for reading the last chapter and specials thanks to the people who favorited, alerted and reviewed as well. I appreciate any comments, suggestions and criticisms; I really want to improve my writing as best I can. Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoy :o)

* * *

"Hey Scott!"

The tall brunette pulled the old friend into a tight hug, reminiscent of the hugs they used to share back when they were kids. Scott hugged her, a little taken aback from her actions. She pulled away and turned to Stiles, offering a meager smile to the boy.

"Hi Stiles."

With one hand in his pocket, Stiles raised his other hand as a gesture. "Uh hey."

"I'll be going but see you around!" she said, looking back from Stiles to Scott before walking past them and out the library with Matthew by her side.

"See? That wasn't so bad?"

Stiles glared at Scott. "Clearly."

"What?"

"She hates me, can't you see?" Stiles exclaimed.

"You're just overreacting. She doesn't hate you. Maybe she wants to punch you, but she doesn't hate you."

"Yeah, thanks buddy. I know I can always count on you."

"P.D.C. Remember that."

A little bit less than 30 students looked up at their economics teacher Coach Finstock in bemusement.

"Does anyone know what PDC stands for?"

Scott raised his hand.

"McCall, you just had lunch so you can go to the bathroom next period."

The whole class laughed. Even Sam had to stifle a chuckle.

"No sir, I know what it means."

Coach Finstock raised his eyebrows. "Really now? Tell us."

"Production, distribution and consumption." Scott answered, playing with the eraser on the ends of his pencil.

"Wow, McCall I am pleasantly surprised. Good to see this side of you." Coach Finstock noted, walking around his desk to the front of his class. His eyes scanned the room before they landed on Sam.

"You."

"Me?" She mouthed, as she looked around to see if he was looking at someone else maybe. Nope, it was her.

"Yes you, are you new here, or?"

She sighed lightly and laughed to herself. "No, I'm not Coach."

He grabbed his attendance clipboard along with a pencil. "Well you seem new. Tell me, what's your name?"

"Samantha Kerr, sir."

"KERR!" Finstock's loud voice boomed across the room causing Sam to jump in her seat. Good ol' Finstock. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Um on vacation?"

He seemed quite happy that she was back. More like elated. "Well are you gonna be on the team this year?"

He certainly got straight to the point.

"Coach, it's an all boys team is it not?"

He scratched his head. "Dang it, you're right."

"That's all right, Coach. She wouldn't make the team anyway," some random voice chimed in.

A familiar random voice.

A familiar asshole voice.

The class erupted into a chorus of "Ooooooo's" and everyone turned to Sam to see what she would say next.

"They do have a strict no animal policy too," she glanced at Scott momentarily and and gave him a wink, "but they seemed to have let you on the team."

"BURN!" some dude yelled in the back of the class. Bryan glared at him and the dude sank down lower into his seat.

Bryan then glared at Sam, muttering something under his breath.

"Now Kerr, we are down one man because Jackson's gone-," her body tensed up and Scott looked at her concerningly. "so if you can, try outs are today! I know the team is apparently "all boys", yadda yadda, but I'm going to look through the handbook and maybe contact the sports department to see if we can change that."

"It's okay, Coach you don't have to."

"Nonsense, Kerr. So you'll be there?"

"I guess?"

"GREAT!"

She mentally slapped herself. The track team was her plan for this year, but now she had managed to get herself into lacrosse team tryouts.

"Good, great. Now time to talk about production. Let's see, let's se-"

She turned around in her seat and leaned against Matthew's desk. "Apparently I do a good job disappearing because everyone seems to be surprised I'm back."

"You certainly do," he laughed "but I still don't get how everyone thought you were dead. Didn't at least someone-"

"Greenberg put your hand down!"

Poor Greenberg. He was a cool dude.

"-notice you were gone?" Matthew continued.

"Um I guess. I was away for summer vacation so maybe people assumed I moved out of town? I don't even know. This is all weird."

He nodded. "Yeah, this all seems weird. But your comeback to that Bryan kid was pure gold."

She pretended to dust something off her shoulders. "Yeah you know, it's all in a day's work."

"True. Listen, I think I'm gonna try out for the team with you, if you don't mind. I played lacrosse back at my old school and I was the captain so I think I have a good shot?"

He did this cute little face as he finished his sentence and fuddled with his hands. He seemed embarrassed to talk about his last school and the fact that he was captain of the lacrosse team. Like a lost puppy he was. "We can try out together if you want?"

"I'd like th-"

"KERR!"

"Sorry Coach" she stammered, turning back around to face the board and trying her best to hide the embarrassment on her face.

"The universe is out to get me, Scott."

Scott rolled his eyes. "The universe is not out to get you, Stiles. Calm down."

"No, no, no," he said over and over "it is."

Scott watched his friend pace back and forth across the field. He would walk 10 inches to the right, bite a nail, turn around and walk back to the left 10 inches, bite another nail, turn back and repeat. "And how is it out to get you?"

"First, she's in almost all of my classes. Second, she's going to try out for the team. Third, SOMETHING ELSE THAT WILL BE BAD BUT HASN'T HAPPENED YET!" He jumped up and down in frustration.

"You're quite amusing to watch you know." Scott pointed out, as he watched Stiles be frustrated from his seat on the lacrosse field stands. The poor dude was practically ripping his hair out.

"Well you know what, I'm glad that MY pain can bring you JOY!" Stiles' voice was laced with sarcasm, as he retorted to his best friend.

"Calm down bro, it's not the end of the world. So what if she tries out? What's the worst that could happen?"

Stiles shot Scott a glare.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have said that." Scott joked. While Stiles continued to pace back and forth, Scott took the time to put on his lacrosse uniform.

"I'm leaving" Stiles piped, grabbing his stuff and making a beeline for the gates. Scott grabbed him with one hand and pulled him back down.

"You are not leaving."

"Yeah? And who's going to stop me? A teenage werewolf? Please, I've heard that one before."

Scott just chuckled and let go of his friend's shirt. In turn, Stiles ran his hands over his matted shirt, trying to fix the 'mess' that Scott had made. The two overheard a wolf whistle, ironically not for Scott, and looked up to see who it was aimed at.

"That's it, I'm leaving" Stiles insisted yet again, getting up off the stands. But for the second time, Scott pulled him back down and the two watched as Sam and Matthew walked across the field. Bryan had wolf whistled at Sam, as she passed by him and his group of friends.

"Wooo baby, come over here" he hollered.

Interesting. One moment he's putting her down, the next he's calling her over to him.

She whispered something into Matthew's ear and Stiles watched as Sam walked over to Bryan. In five seconds flat, Stiles watched as the blond boy ended up on the floor with his hands behind his back and a foot pressed to the back of his neck.

"I am not your baby, nor am I your girl, or your bitch, or anything of that kind. I am a human being and therefore, you treat me with respect." Sam hissed into his ear, further pushing his face into the ground. "Got it?"

The boy nodded fervently, his cheek rubbing against the grass soil.

"Good."

She got off the boy with ease and wiped her hands clean. The boy slowly picked himself up, along with the help of his friends and the three moved further back away from Sam.

"What happened to sweet, innocent Sam we all know?" Scott joked, as Sam sat down next to him to fix her knee pads.

"I'm still the same Sam, just a little bit more tougher. Plus, when it comes to assholes like that, I don't have to be sweet. I have to defend myself whatever way I can."

"True, sorry you had to hear that."

"Him? Oh no problems. I've heard worse things. It's just sad that people feel the need to disrespect others like that you know?"

By this time, the whole team had gathered around the stands and Coach Finstock began appointing positions for tryouts.

"Kerr behind Stilinski! Heinz behind McCall. Greenberg, damn it, Greenberg get over here!"

Poor Greenberg.

Stiles chuckled a little bit. He was right in front of Sam and she took her time, her eyes wandering over every part of his body.

Taller.

Leaner.

Softer hair.

"You grew out your hair," she said aloud, only realizing a few seconds afterward she had meant to keep that to herself.

He turned and looked at Sam. "Me? Yeah, I've decided to grow it out this time." His hands found their way to his hair which he started ruffling up a bit and smoothing over.

'Babe. I mean - butt. He was a butt, remember that. He was the one who pushed you away.'

"So how was your summer?" he asked her. Like Sam, Stiles was hoping to at least have somewhat of a conversation with her. And if it was going to be an awkward one, then that was fine by him.

Stiles leaned back and forth on the heels of his sneakers, waiting for her to reply. "Oh me?"

He nodded.

"Really nice, peaceful, safe. You?"

"Cool."

"Cool."

"Cool." Scott added.

Sam laughed at him and padded her helmet. Her hair reached a little bit past her shoulders so she figured, it would probably be best to tie it up before putting on the helmet. She pulled her hair, tying it back into a high ponytail and putting the helmet on.

"Listen up. Each of you have a partner, now I want the first partner to run across the field right no- Actually let's do an example. Stilinski, Kerr, up front and center right now."

They fumbled over to Coach Finstock and stood in front of him. "Okay you two are gonna be the examples."

'Great.'

"Stilinski, you are going to run across the field with the ball and Kerr will be here. When I say go, your job is to run down the field and get past Kerr without her knocking you down."

Stiles raised his hand. "Um, I don't think it's best I go against Sam. Can I switch with some-"

"Nonsense!" Coach Finstock interjected as he pushed Stiles out onto the field. "When I say go, you start running, okay?"

"Can I run home?"

'Same old Stiles.'

"I'll still chase you down!" She commented, to which he groaned. He clearly wasn't excited to be her partner.

She fixed her helmet and leaned down, her vision focused on the field. She could feel the eyes of all the boys on her, especially on her backside since she had decided to wear shorts. 'Oh, you know what they say. Rock that butt.'

'Or something like that.'

The whole field seemed to double in size as Stiles' figure seemed to shrink in the distance. Everything stood still for a moment and then Sam heard Coach Finstock's loud "GO!" and she took off dashing across the field.

Her feet moved fast underneath her body, pushing the ground beneath her as Stiles and her moved closer to one another. He faked left, tried faking right but ended up fumbling which gave her the perfect chance to push forward and tackle him to the ground. Their bodies collided and he fell down to the ground, with her directly on top of him.

Groans, moans and everything in between.

After a few seconds of struggling with her helmet, which managed to twist to the left therefore obstructing her vision, Sam somehow managed to fix it enough to realize she was directly on top of Stiles. She knew that before but now that she saw his face and body underneath hers it made it THAT more real.

"You know I'd love to stay and chat Sam, but I've got places to be."

She smacked his helmet. Lightly.

"OWWWWWWWW!"

Maybe not so lightly.

"Sorry not sorry," She pushed her hands against the grass and started pushing herself up, when Stiles' hand reached out and grabbed her Lacrosse jersey, and pulled her back down.

"May I help you?" She asked, through gritted teeth. The impact of her body against his had hurt. A lot.

"Listen, can we talk?"

She gave him a look. The 'Are you serious?' look.

"I'm serious. I really need to patch things up with you."

Sam's eyebrows furrowed and she laughed, one of those fake laughs, as she looked out into the distance before turning to look back at Stiles. "Well Stiles, that's too bad because I don't need to patch things up with you."

By this point, they had both gotten up of the grass and were standing in the middle of the field, facing one another.

Sam was angry. Scratch that. She was fuming. Her knuckles were clenched and her heart was beginning to beat faster. Like a teapot ready to blow steam, Sam was about to blow her own steam.

"You don't like feeling bad or guilty so to get rid of that guilt you think apologizing to me with a simple 'I'm sorry' will make it up. Because that's where you're wrong, Stiles." Her voice got higher with each and every word and slowly but surely, she moved closer and closer to Stiles. In turn, he moved backward with each step, slightly intimidated by Sam.

She didn't stop however. "God, Stiles. Your idea of protecting me left me all alone. I was by myself for the longest time. How was that protection? I had NO ONE to talk to and if I tried even looking at you or smiling, you immediately looked away like I was the scum of the Earth. I remember once," a sad laugh escaped her lips, as she continued "we were doing a group project and we had to work together. Remember what you did, Stiles? Do you remember?" she asked, looking directly into his eyes.

He looked away and licked his lips. She reached out with her hand and pushed his cheek so he would look at her.

"Well do you?"

"Yes." It was more of a whisper, but she heard what he said.

"So you don't want me to remind you how you raised your hand in the middle of class, told our teacher how you didn't like working with me and then you grabbed your stuff and asked to move your seat far far away from me because you didn't even want to be "near Sam"?"

"I'm so-"

"No you're not."

"What the hell do you want me to tell you, Sam? Because you sure as hell don't want to hear my explanation."

"You're damn right I don't." She sighed and looked away again. This time, when she spoke, it was softer. "Who were you really protecting, Stiles? Me or you? And when, when will you finally man-up and just take responsibility for your actions?"

And without even bothering to hear him out, she turned around and walked back to Coach where she put down her stick and the ball before his feet. "I don't feel so good and I think it's best I don't join the team. You still have a great team here, Coach. Good luck this season."

"Are you sure, Kerr? We could use a player like you. It'd really mean alot if you would join."

As she looked up and at Coach, she found herself trying to hold back a smile. He was doing his famous puppy dog face and she just couldn't resist smiling.

"Theeeere you go!" Coach pointed to her smile. "So is that a yes?"

"It's a maybe." She replied cooly. "I'll let you know soon, but I really should be getting home. I'm sorry for this whole mess and all. Have a nice practice, guys."

She felt embarrassed as she waved at the boys and they all waved back, except Bryan. Making her way down the field towards the parking lot, she was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. Sam turned around, totally surprised to see who the hand belonged to.

"Bryan?"

He scratched the back of his neck. "Listen, I was an asshole toda-"

"Yes you were." But she felt bad. "Sorry."

"'No, no. It's I who should be sorry. I really made myself out to be some pig-headed, asshole jerk when I'm really not. I'm not the nicest guy but I'm trying and I know today wasn't a prime example of that. What I'm trying to get at is that I'm sorry and I really didn't mean to offend you."

Wow. He had surprised her. "It's okay."

"Can we still be friends?" he asked her. His voice was filled with sincerity and she could see in his eyes he had felt bad about how he treated her.

"Yeah, I'd like that."

"Great!" he exclaimed, clasping his hands together. "And another thing, that tackle was really impressive. It'd be really great if you would join the team."

"I thought it was an all-boys team?"

He smirked. "I checked the handbook at lunch to make sure and apparently it's co-ed."

"Oh wow." Suddenly, she had the urge to go back onto the field and tackle someone else. "I'll think it about."

"You better! See you in class tomorrow."

"Yeah, see you" her voice dragged on. Bryan had ran back to the field to stand next to the guys.

Sam pondered the thought and figured 'Why the hell not?'. The walk home was about 15 minutes and along the way, the light brunette had stuck her headphones into her ears and listened to the music on her phone. The weather was strangely hot despite the fact that it was early September which usually meant chilly air and cloudy skies. But as Sam looked up at the sky, she was pleasantly surprised not to find a cloud in sight and only the bright shining sun.

So she smiled. Sure, her first day of school was somewhat of an absolute mess but at least the weather wasn't. The whole fight with Stiles had completely left her mind and now she was just enjoying the moment. And as she made her way up the walkway to her house, she couldn't help but to dance along to the song she was listening. She reached for the door handle, only to have her mother open it with a huge, satisfied grin.

"So I take it was a good day?"

"Maaaaaaaybe" Sam said in a sing-song voice, as she dropped her bag near the staircase.

"Lacrosse?"

"Huh?" Oh yeah," Sam remembered about the jersey that she was wearing. "I think i'm gonna join the team this year."

"Yeah?"

"Mhm. Whatcha cooking?" Sam said, taking a sniff of the concoctions her mom was making. "Looks delicious."

"No, no, no" Sam's mother playfully slapped her daughter's fingers away from the freshly cooked meal. "Not until you wash up, missy."

Sam grumbled and trudged her way up the stairs to the bathroom. The small bathroom itself had a sea-like feeling to it: the soap was shell-shaped, the shower curtain was adorned in mermaids, and the mirror was covered in tiny, blue waves that Sam had painted on. Even when you stepped into the bathroom and took a breath and closed your eyes, you suddenly would feel as if you had been transported to a beautiful seaside shore.

She lathered her hands, and stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her chocolate brown eyes looked a little tired and her hair had gotten a tiny bit frazzled from the helmet. As she finished lathering up, her stomach let out a loud grumble. She laughed.

"There, there little one. Soon you will be fed," she jokingly mumbled to her stomach. She dried her hands and then proceeded to run down the stairs to the kitchen, where her mother had just finished setting the touches on dinner.

"You seem excited?" Sam's mother noticed. She placed the two plates onto the kitchen counter and took a seat on one of the chairs, watching as her daughter did the same.

"I am. I'm STARVING!"

"Don't worry, I made one of your favorites, salmon with vegetable soup on the side."

Sam closed her eyes and smiled widely. "Music to my ears, Mom."

The two laughed. "So how was school? Meet a cute boy?" Her mom winked.

"I did meet a nice, cute boy." Sam blushed and looked at her food as if she was in utter awe of what was before her.

"And?"

"And his name is Matthew and he tried out for the lacrosse team so if he made it, which I'm sure he did, I'll be seeing him there too. That is if I made it, which I think I did? But I don't know? Annnnyway..."

She took a deep breath.

"Well I'm glad you had a nice first day."

"It was a weird, nice first day. Half the school thought I was dead or had disappeared and the other half were surprised at how much I changed." Sam said in between mouthfuls of her dinner. She wiped her mouth clean and looked up at her mom. "And then I kinda, almost, punched Stiles, but I refrained myself from doing so."

"Punching? Stiles? Why?"

"He got me mad."

"Honey..."

"Mom, you don't understand. Because of him, I had to deal with everything for the most 3 months ALL BY MYSELF. Even whe-"

"Sam, it's no-"

"Mom, it is. You know I always take responsibility for my actions and I don't like to blame others for it, but this time I don't care. It's his fault and," she paused, "remember the bio incident?"

The mother nodded, giving Sam the notion to continue talking.

"Mom, it's just ugh, he didn't even apologize for it and that's what bothered me. And then another time, I bumped into him at lunch and spilled everything all over myself and he didn't even look at me."

"Sa-"

"Whatever, it's stupid. If you need me, I'll be up in my room. Thanks for dinner." Sam placed her fork over her unfinished meal and got out of the chair. Her mother didn't say anything, but continued to eat her meal as she watched, out of the corner of her eye, Sam go upstairs.

She sighed as she entered her room, falling onto the bed. Sometimes she wished things were different. With her mom, with her friends, with her life in general. After her dad was killed, things were different. Her mother and her got closer but she also felt like her mother wasn't always telling her everything. Even as Sam got older and wanted to discuss the case, her mother would always try to change the topic. Thinking back to the two years after her father's murder, she would remember staying up most nights in her room, with Stiles, going through case files after case files of similar type murders. On the other nights, it was her and Stiles sneaking into his Sheriff Stilinski's office to go through case files. They pretended to be spies, wearing all black and everything, and giving into Stiles' request, the two even wore ski masks to hide their faces. At home, the two would stay up in her room and go through each case file, noting and highlighting certain points to remember. That was something she adored about Stiles. He was there for her through everything. Now he wasn't.

Eventually, Sam had memorized her entire father's case file to the point where she could recite it down to every last word and period to anyone who asked. But even with all that down, she still couldn't figure out the who and the why?

"I need some air."

This was all becoming too much for her again. She didn't like to think a lot about her father's case or else her breathing would get faster and her heart would race and her throat would eventually choke up. Rather, Sam got out of her bed, threw a black sweater on and walked over to her window. She opened it enough for herself to climb out and be able to get back in without being noticed. Sitting atop her window's ledge and staring down at the ground, Sam felt the sudden urge to be comforted. To be held. To be told "Everything will be okay". The feeling was soon gone as Sam let go of her position on the ledge and jumped down towards the ground, sticking the landing perfectly.

The moon was rising in Beacon Hills and as Sam stared at the tall, dark forest, her adrenaline kicked in and she suddenly felt like running.

_Who said you couldn't run away from your problems?_

* * *

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed! Once again, all comments, suggestions, and criticisms are greatly appreciated. Have a lovely day :)


	3. Promise

Disclaimer: I do not have any affiliation with Teen Wolf or the characters, nor do I own them. I only own my characters.

Hi guys :o) I'm going to do my best to keep my story run alongside season 3 meaning I will be including the twins, the alphas, etc.; however, some things I can't change like the English teacher who is male in my story but female (Ms. Blake) on the show. It may end up working out since Scott and the twins, Ethan and Aiden, have Ms. Blake (the English teacher) last period so maybe Stiles and Sam just have the other English teacher earlier in the day, you know? I will try my best to have it coincide and work out so no one is confused whatsoever!

Also, comments, questions and constructive criticisms are always welcome and appreciated. Thank you so much and hope you enjoy! :)

* * *

It was rather simple to run away from your problems. You just had to start running and not stop. And even when you wanted to stop, you had to keep going. Even if your legs were on fire and your mouth was as dry as a desert, you had to keep going. Faster and faster every step.

Even when you were scared out of your mind, even when the world was crashing down around you, you just kept going.

And so she did. She ran through the forest, over bushes, in between trees, through creeks and under burrows until she finally found the spot. When she was younger, her dad would take her to the forest and he would teach her to climb the trees as well as teach her how to protect herself from an animal attack and hide effectively. As the forest was extremely vast and difficult to maneuver through, her dad had taught her to use tricks to find her way back home. And after a long day of doing just that, the two would come to one of the ends of the forest where the trees stopped and there was just an opening of land with a huge rock that overlooked the river. At the edge, the land would stop and down below would be an extensive river, flowing freely to and fro.

Sam rested her hand against one of the trees and looked at the rock that she hadn't seen since she was twelve or so. The last time she was here was on the second anniversary of her father's death and she had spent half the day sitting on the rock, mindlessly looking out towards the river. Stiles had joined her when the sun was setting and the two sat in silence for a few hours before he took her home. Now, this time she was by herself in the cold, dark night.

She let go of her hand on the tree and walked slowly towards the rock, taking deep breaths each time. And each time she got closer to the rock, she could feel her heartbeat grow faster and faster. Her hands ran along the rock. Familiarity set in as she closed her eyes.

_"Daddy, watch this, watch this!"_

_"Okay sweetie, I'm watching, lay it on me."_

_The bubbly girl smiled and took a deep breath. "Are you ready?"_

_He looked at his young daughter proudly. She was growing up. "Yes. Are you?"_

_She giggled. "Born ready, Daddy." Sam adjusted her bow and arrow and took a step back._

_"Show me what you got."_

_Sam closed her eyes, mumbled something under her breath and started running; she was always a fast runner, especially when she had a motive and a goal. She jumped onto the rock and took two shots at the target on the tree, doing a front flip off the rock and shooting at the target once again in mid-air before landing perfectly onto the ground. Her knees were bent and her eyes locked on the target as she pulled back and shot one more time, hitting the target dead-center._

_"I DID IT, DADDY. I DID IT!"_

_He ran towards her and picked her up into his arms, kissing her on her head. "You certainly did, Sammy. You certainly did."_

"You certainly did." She murmured, as she looked at the same path she had seven or so years prior. "Let's see if I still have it."

She needed to prove to herself and her father that she was still the same girl she always was. "I can do this."

Her feet started moving and she starting shifting her arms back and forth as she approached the rock. Her right foot got onto the rock and she pretended to take two shots at the imaginary target. She propelled herself off the rock, doing a frontflip and pretending too shoot two more times at the target, before falling onto the ground and rolling into a ready position. Once more, she took a pretend shot at the target.

She smirked. She still had it.

"I guess old habits die hard."

Even though she was a little rusty in her flip as she wasn't as small and light as her 8 year old self, she still did it. After all these years, Sam still had it in her. Her eyes started to fill with tears and she sniffled, before laughing at how silly she was for crying. "Do one practice run, Sam and you're already crying. What's going to happen when you finally get that bow and arrow or gun out?"

She didn't answer herself. One last look at the rock and she was gone into the forest once again.

When she finally got back near her house, the window was still open. Not that it wouldn't be. Her mother and her had these unspoken agreements between them. Sometimes Sam would sneak out to the woods and return back, and even though it worried her mom when she first started doing it, she got used to it. It was Sam's way of blowing steam. When her mom was obsessively cooking and creating new recipes, or in the garage tinkering with her car, it was her way of blowing her own steam. Often, Sam would join her when it came time to fixing car as it was something her, her dad and her mom would always do as a family. Her father's tombstone was another example of their unspoken agreements; the two never went together to visit the tombstone: one week Sam would go and the next, her mom. Going together, they figured, would just be too much for them to handle.

So as she climbed back into her room, she found it surprising that her mother was sitting on the edge of her bed.

"Mom?"

The women looked up, clutching on to one of Sam's old teddy bears. She had obviously been crying. "Oh, honey, you're home, thank god." Her mother got up of the bed and hugged her daughter tight, the teddy bear falling to the floor as she let go of it.

"Mom, are you okay? What's wrong?" Sam asked, as she soothingly rubbed her mother's back. "Are you alright?"

"Yes," she leaned back, still holding onto her daughter "I just had a nightmare and I needed to make sure you were home."

"I'm sorry." Sam said. She wasn't quite sure how to respond. Last time her mother cried was when they got news of her father's murder and after that, she never shed a single tear. Well, at least not in front of Sam. And now she was crying and she couldn't seem to stop.

"I had a nightmare that they, they took you and they were hurting you and I was screaming and fighting but no one could hear me and I wasn't moving, I was stuck in place and and they, they were hurting you really badly and you were bleeding and crying and - honey, I'm so so sorry." Her mother's sobs were muffled as she pressed her head against Sam's shoulders, while the younger girl stroked her mother's hair.

"Momma, I'm here. I'm here, Momma. It's okay, no one will hurt me. And you know me. If they try, I'll hurt them before they even get a chance to hurt me. Mom, it's okay. We're okay."

She nodded helplessly along and the two walked downstairs, arms intertwined. Mrs. Kerr took a seat on the couch as Sam ran and got her some water, whilst they waited for the tea to cool down. Sam sat next to her mother and watched as she took small sips of the water.

"Baby, I have so much to tell you, but I can't. It's just not the right time."

"It's okay, I can wait. Whenever you're ready, I'm always here you know that."

She nodded and adjusted the blanket over her delicate body. In that moment, as Sam looked at her mom, she was in awe at how this strong, brave woman now looked more like a porcelain doll that was ready to crack at any second.

"I know that, but time is going to run out and - you're right, I need to relax. I've been overworking myself at the restaurant and I don't even like it there anymore."

"So why don't you go back to the bakery? Everyone loved you there."

"I know, but Pete and I both agreed that it was just going to make me sad working there. That's why I stepped down and let him take care of it."

Her parents had both met at the Beacon Bakery when they were just Sam's age. lsabella, her mother, was working the counter, wiping it clean when Alex, her father, came in with his friends. The two looked at each other and the rest they say is history.

"It's going to hurt, but you are the toughest women I know and I believe in you. How about after school tomorrow, I pick you up from the restaurant and we both go to the bakery?"

"That sounds good to me." She replied, taking another sip of water. "You know, on our first date, your father took me to the forest," she grinned "and we had a picnic. And after that, when the moon was rising, he took me to that rock you two always went to - the one you went to tonight. And we sat down and for a while we just talked and laughed, and then it started to rain. Neither of us moved and so he grabbed my hand in his, and turned to me and said 'Do you know why the sky is crying?' and I told him 'No, I don't' and he smiled at me and said 'Because they miss having an angel' and I was like 'Which angel?' and he said 'You' and then he kissed me and I know it was fast and it was only our first date, but darling I think that's when I knew he was the one I wanted to be with for the rest of my life."

Sam watched the old sparkle in her mom's dark brown eyes come through again. "And I remember when we pulled away, he looked at me and I'll never forgot that look. His eyes, oh god they were so blue and the moon was reflecting on them and I could feel it in his soul, that every of inch of his being was in love and the way he looked at me and held me in that moment, is something that I can still feel to this today."

Sam leaned in closer to her mother, who wrapped her arm around her daughter's shoulders. "I want us to be closer. Like family again. Not the 'You go out at night and I'm supposed to be okay with it' or the 'I work in the kitchen all night long creating new recipes because I don't want to think about Dad'. I want us to talk again."

"Me too."

"We will, I promise but right now you need to sleep, my angel. You have school tomorrow and I have a job to quit."

Sam yawned. "Night. Love you."

"Love you more."

Sam was taking out a pencil from her bookbag when she heard someone say "Are you okay?"

She looked up and saw Matthew, who was sitting in Stiles' seat and leaning down to talk to her. "Hey! Oh right, yesterday. I'm really sorry, I left you on the field. Did you make the team?"

"I did, yeah" he blushed "but more importantly are you okay? You didn't seem well yesterday."

"Ugh yeah, I just had a bad stomachache and I was really hungry. I'm so sorry that I left you there though. I really didn't mean to."

"It's totally fine, I get it." He was so close that she could feel his hot breath against her skin. Mint. His breath smelled like mint and he smelled like chocolate. Interesting.

"Ahem."

Someone coughed and the two of them moved apart, obviously embarrassed by the position they were just in. After pretending to have something to look for her in her notebook, she realized the cough had belonged to Stiles.

"Um dude, you're kind of in my seat."

"Oh shoot, right. Sorry about that."

Sam watched as Matthew got up, and walked past Stiles but not before leaning down towards Sam and whispering "See you at lunch".

He winked at her and she smiled to herself, looking back down at her notebook. Her smile turned into a huge grin as she looked over at Matthew who had just sat down in his seat. Things were going to be good.

In English, things went bad. Real fast.

"So for your first project, you will be assigned a partner. But only you, your partner and I will know who you're working with. The assignment is to figure out all that you can about your partner and then write a poem describing them. You will present it in front of the class who will then try to decipher who it is. You have two weeks to finish."

Sam watched as kids went up to Mr. Itzin's desk, one by one until finally, it was her turn.

"Ah Mrs. Kerr. I am excited to read your essay about your summer vacation. Mrs. Mowgli spoke very well of your work last year and she said you were one of the best in the grade."

"Really? Wow, um I really appreciate her comments?" It came out more like a question than a statement.

"You should! You know Mrs. Mowgli and how uptight she can be. Oops, you didn't hear that from me," he chuckled to himself and Sam smiled awkwardly. "Anyway, you and Mr. Stilinski will be paired up for this project. Mrs. Mowgli had good words to say about Mr. Stilinski as well so I can't wait to see what you two can come up with."

"Me neither." Sam mumbled, as she walked back to her seat half-dead. As if she was in the mood to write some poem about Stiles.

When it was Stiles' turn to go up and get her name, he turned around, his eyes catching hers and for a split second, she figured he would turn around and beg to switch partners. But he didn't. Rather, he went back to his seat and then leaned over.

"Listen, for the poem project I was thinking maybe we could hang out and do it together?" He asked her.

She scratched her neck and thought about it. Had he lost his mind?

"Like old times sake?" He added in, offering her a small, goofy smile.

She giggled. 'Damn it' she thought, he won her over so easily. "Sure."

"Great! So do you wanna come over tonight? Unless that doesn't work for you which I totally get so if tha-"

She cut him off by pressing her hand against his mouth. "Tonight's fine. My place or yours?"

"Monien," He tried answering but it came out muffled as Sam's hand was still over his mouth. Mine." He said better as she took her hand back.

"6:30?"

"Sounds good to me."

"I just gotta do something with my mom first and then I'll go straight to your house from there."

"I think my dad might be home, so we can just work on the project upstairs in my room."

Sam nodded as Mr. Itzin stood up and began talking about the plans for the next couple of weeks in class.

In Math, Sam watched as Allison walked in with Lydia and as Allison neared her desk, she stopped in her tracks, causing Lydia to stumble behind her momentarily.

"Allison, wha- oh my god."

"Hi?" Sam meekly mumbled before she was engulfed into a half hug by Allison. Lydia ran over and hugged Sam from the other side.

"I missed you!" the two exclaimed in unison as they pulled back.

"Oh," Allison covered her mouth "you were here yesterday and we barely noticed you. Wow, we suck."

Lydia adjusted her turquoise blazer. "We don't suck" she said, before continuing "yeah, you're right, we do."

"I thought it was you, but Mrs. Perkins didn't say the attendance and I didn't want to make it awkward and lean over and be like 'Psst Sam' only to get a 'I'm not Sam'. I knew it was you, but then again, you look a lot different so I was a little skeptical." Allison explained as she took a seat in her chair.

Lydia did the same, turning around to face the two. Sam piped up "Have I really changed that much though?"

"Totally!" Lydia nodded her head "You look so chic and fresh. Your hair is a lot lighter and looks freshly cut, your skin a little bit darker and you seem a lot leaner too. Plus, there's this different vibe to you."

Sam shyly tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. "Thanks, Lydia."

"No problem. Anyway, we're having lunch together because we totally need to catch up, okay?"

"Right, I sit in the library with Matthew so if you guys could meet us there that'd be great."

"Matthew?" Allison raised her eyebrows while Lydia smirked.

"Is this your new man?"

Sam coughed and looked at Allison for support. "I'm sure he's just her friend. Right?"

"Yeah, he's just my friend. He's new here s-"

"Nooooo, you like him!" Lydia said in a sing-song voice "You so like him and I can see it in your eyes. You liiiiike him."

Sam breathed out deeply and looked at Allison; the two exchanged smiles and Sam felt like she had never left Beacon Hills at all.

"Yo Danny, I bet I can make the shot all the way from here."

"No waaaaaay. You're on!"

Sam raised her eyebrows and got up out of her seat, chucking the ball of paper into the trashcan and getting it in. "Pay up," she joked to Danny.

"Yeah so about that umm you see-"

"I'm just kidding. Now come here and give me a hug!"

She had missed Danny a lot. The two had grown up on the same block and their families were really good friends. Danny was definitely one of her closest friends and she told him lots of secrets with total trust; he was someone who always had her back regardless and she had missed him dearly. As she hugged him and rested her hands on his back, the familiarity of his strong scent, Armani, and rugged body caused her to smile to herself in delight.

"I missed you," she murmured.

"Likewise kiddo, likewise."

"You weren't at practice yesterday. I was hoping to see you."

"I had to go to the doctor for a check-up. Wait a second, are you?"

Sam shook her head up and down and Danny once again pulled her into a hug.

"Well this is perfect because that means I get to see this beautiful face," he poked her nose "even more now."

She giggled.

"I gotta go, but I'll see you around Kerr."

"You can count on it, Māhealani." She said as she winked at him, and went back to her seat at the lunch table.

By now, Lydia and Allison had sat down and Matthew was sitting at the table too, doing trig homework it seemed.

And like the hug she shared with Danny, seeing Lydia and Allison sitting with her again felt like home and she truly had missed this feeling.

"So you quit?" Sam asked her mother as the two walked down the street, on their way towards the Beacon Bakery.

"I actually got fired."

"What did you do?" Sam eyed her mom and the women merely shrugged.

"My boss told me to 'get back in the kitchen' and then made some sexist comment so I-"

"Please tell me he's still alive?"

"Hopefully?"

The two laughed, entering the bakery. The sweet, savory aroma infiltrated their noses and the two women let out a pleased sigh. Beacon's Bakery was the most well liked and most respected business in the area; the workers were sweet and the delicacies were absolutely mouth-watering. As many as three times a day, people would stop by to get a whiff and taste of all the succulent dishes the place offered.

"Hey Pete!"

Sam watched as her mother and Pete hugged, the latter rubbing the former's back softly. The two pulled back, shared a joke, laughed and turned to face Sam.

"My, my, Sammy you've gotten big!"

She laughed. "Good ol' Uncle Pete for ya."

Pete was a huge softie and a total sweetheart; he was her dad's best friend and for Sam, he was like an uncle.

"Soooooooo is there still a spot here for me?" Mrs. Kerr interjected into Sam and Pete's conversation.

"You know there's always a spot here for you, Isa and the same goes for Sam. How about it kid?"

"You want me to work here?"

"Yeah, why not? You're not going to blow the place up, are you?"

"I make noooo promises." Sam joked, raising her hands up in defense.

He smiled, walking behind the counter. "Guess you just got hired."

The walk to Stiles' house seemed to take forever. It wasn't even that far away from the bakery, but each step Sam took seemed to make the distance to Stiles' house further. As she walked towards his house, she thought of her new job at the bakery; she was looking forward to working as there, not only because it was a great environment but also, as it would give her the opportunity to get out of the house for a few hours each day and it wouldn't be to school.

She hadn't been to Stiles' house since the night before the incident, which was a whole story in itself.

_"Give me the remote!" Sam said through gritted teeth as she moved towards Stiles._

_"Make me give it to you." He smirked, moving one step backwards._

_She chased after him in his living room, going so far as to jump over the dining room table before finally toppling him near the couch. The two fell with a loud thud, but Stiles still held onto the remote tight._

_"Like I said," he paused, waving the remote right in front of Sam's face "make me."_

_She leaned in closer to his face, her body on top of his and ran her index finger slowly up his neck, watching as his facial expressions slowly changed from amusement to slight pleasure._

_"Oh," she let out in a breathless whisper "I'll make you."_

_"Do it" he mumbled, glancing at her lips before looking back at her eyes._

_"Kids, do you need any - am I interrupting something?"_

Not exactly how she had hoped that would've gone, but nevertheless she was glad Mr. Stilinski had walked in just in time. She had missed him too; she missed his little corny jokes and his protectiveness over her. Similar to Pete but more so, he had become like a second father to her following her dad's death. He was very sweet and she always noticed when something was off with him; whether a tough case or he was just thinking about his wife, she always knew what to do to cheer him back up even if it meant poking fun at Stiles a bit.

And as she walked up the pathway towards the house, she found herself overwhelmed. Anxious. Excited. Ambivalent. Nervous. Scared. Excited. All of those feelings wrapped into one.

She rung the doorbell and looked around momentarily. Everything still looked the same for the most part.

"Uh- oh my god, Sam!"

"Hey Mr. Stilinski!"

Before she could even say anything else, he pulled her into a hug. A little taken aback, she wrapped her arms around him and patted him on the back. With her chin perched on Sheriff Stilinski's shoulder, she could see Stiles make his way down the stairs.

"Hey!"

"Oh hey!" Sam replied, letting go of the older Stilinski.

"I'll be in the kitchen working on a case so let me know if you kids need anything." He said, walking towards the kitchen. He stopped and turned around, smiling to himself "It's nice to see you again, Sam. Been too long."

She smiled softly and nodded.

"So I was thinking," Stiles said, diverting Sam's attention back to him "that we could work on the project in my room?"

"Sounds good to me," Sam answered, tugging on her book bag just a little bit more. The two walked upstairs in silence and walked into Stiles' bedroom.

"Still looks the same."

"Huh?"

"I meant your bedroom still looks the same last time I was in it."

"Wasn't the last time you were in it the da-"

"Yup." Sam cut him off and set her backpack down on the floor.

"I'm really so-"

"I think we should work on the project." She cut him off again, tucking both her hands into her back pockets.

Stiles sighed softly. Same old Sam. Same old stubborn, hard-headed Sam.

He grabbed his laptop off the desk and sat down on the bed, calling her over to sit near him. She walked over, taking a seat on the bed next to him.

"So I was thinking we ask each other like 20 questions and - okay, honestly we're best friends so I don't see why this is hard for us. I know everything there is to know about you."

Sam raised her eyebrow. "Do you, Stiles? Do you really?"

He set his laptop on the edge of the bed and turned his body to face hers. "Yeah, mhm, I think I do."

She laughed, looking down at the her hands resting in her lap.

"What? You don't believe me? You don't have to. But who else knows that you always run, run from me, run from home, run away from your problems?"

"Stil-"

"Who else knows that you're scared to hold animals because you have this fear that you'll hurt them?"

"Stiles, sto-"

"And who else knows that you don't like it when people don't hear you out or try to listen to what you're saying so you get mad and start yelling in hopes that they'll finally listen to you? And who else knows that you make it an effort to smile at everyone you see when you walk down the street?"

"Stiles, I think we-"

"And who else knows," he placed his index finger under her chin and pushed it softly upwards so she was looking straight at him "that you're scared deep down inside but you won't admit it so you put all your effort into making others happy and safe when deep down inside you don't always feel that way?"

Sam grabbed her hand in his and looked up at him "I think we should really work on the project."

And that was that.

He nodded, realizing he probably struck a really bad nerve and rather than making her more upset, it'd be best to do the project.

And initially they did for like 10 minutes, until Stiles decided to show Sam some funny video he saw online and the two couldn't stop laughing. From there, they started watching more and more videos and eventually it was 9 o'clock and all the two had managed to do was laugh and fall on the floor a few times.

"Pizza's here!" Papa Stilinski yelled from downstairs.

Stiles looked at Sam, a mischievous glint in his eyes as he bolted for the bedroom door.

"Oh no you're not!" Sam yelled, running right after him.

The two ran down the hallway and Sam bumped Stiles into the wall and got ahead of him, as the boy rubbed his shoulder in pain.

"OW!" he responded to her push, doing his best to get back up and run after her.

She made it to the stairs and ran down them, but Stiles was right behind her and as she almost reached the last step, he toppled right on her and the two crashed into the floor.

The teenagers moaned and rubbed their heads in pain.

"All that for pizza?" Papa Stilinski asked, as he brought out the pizza pie onto the table.

"Yep" the two replied in unison.

Sam got up first, turning and helping Stiles get up. The three of them sat down at the table and didn't take any delay in getting their own pizza slices out of the box.

They talked and reminisced and deep down inside, Sam knew this was exactly where she needed to be in that moment. Hearing Papa Stilinski laugh when Stiles made a joke was heartwarming and when she looked at Stiles and he looked back at her, she had realized how much she had truly missed having him in her life. And when Stiles was scarfing down his second slice of pizza and making a mess all over his face, requiring Sam to lean over and wipe away the sauce from his nose, she knew it in her heart that she was happy.

When 10 o'clock rolled around, Sam figured it'd be best to head home and Stiles offered to walk her there. Sam and Papa Stilinski shared one more hug and she thanked him for the lovely meal and stay.

"No problem, Sam. You better come again soon, okay?"

"I will," she laughed "I will."

"I'll be home in 10 minutes, Dad!" Stiles said, closing the door behind him and walking Sam towards her house.

The two walked in silence for the duration of the walk, up until Sam was near her front door.

"I just wanted to thank you for tonight. I really had a great time and I'm glad we did this."

Stiles smiled. "Me too."

"And I'd really like it if we could hang out again?"

"Me too." He agreed.

An awkward silence set in, something that Stiles and Sam rarely had.

"Well goodnight," she said, reaching for the door handle. She stopped, turned around and suddenly hugged him. He was slightly surprised but he eased into the hug and held her tight against his body, hoping this time she wouldn't leave. She rested her head on his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart. He drew circles on her back with his fingers as he took in that oh-so-familiar aroma of lavender and coconut.

She pulled back and looked him in the eyes, smiling widely. He grinned too, his hands resting on her hips. She leaned up and kissed his cheek quickly, before grabbing the door handle, turning it open and going inside.

See you around, Stilinski."

He raised his hand up to his cheek, rubbing the spot where she had just kissed him in disbelief. "Yeah," he turned to look at her and Sam noticed the sudden rush of blood to his cheeks, making them ten times redder than before "you too, Kerr."

She shut the door behind her, leaning against the back of it momentarily before heading towards her bedroom, while Stiles looked one last time at the door before making his way home.

He entered through the front door, closing it softly behind him and made his way up the stairs slowly.

As he was wiping his coffee mug, Papa Stilinski stopped for a moment and leaned against the doorframe. "You know Sam reminds me a lot of your mother. Stubborn, sweet, kind, brave. She's a lot like you too."

"Dad, I do-"

"I know, I know." Mr. Stilinski turned to go back into the kitchen, but paused and looked at Stiles. "Promise me one thing. Don't let her go again."

Stiles stopped walking up the stairs and looked at his dad. "I promise."

As he reached his room, Stiles pondered for a moment and went inside and found Sam sitting on his bed crying. She was shaking and as she looked up at him, her eyes filled with tears, he could feel his heart break.

"Sam?" Stiles said, his voice cracking as he moved closer.

He blinked and suddenly she was gone. He shook his head, "I must be tired" he mumbled to himself.

Taking off his shirt and jeans, Stiles threw them onto the chair and got into bed. For a few moments, he took some deep breaths and tried relaxing but suddenly he found himself thinking back to that night a few months prior.

_"SCOTT!" Stiles screamed. His hands were uncontrollably shaking, his heart racing and his breathing growing more rapid by the second._

_"NOT YET! If we go now, he might kill her, Stiles. We need to wait."_

_"I'D RATHER TAKE THAT RISK THAN SEE HIM THROWING HER AROUND LIKE A RAG DOLL, SCOTT! THAT'S SAM. THAT'S OUR FRIEND, SCOTT. I'M NOT GOING TO STAND AROUND HERE AND WATCH HIM DO THIS TO HER." Stiles yelled, before making a dash for it onto the field. Scott ran in pursuit, grabbing Stiles and pulling him down._

_"Stiles, she's my friend too and believe me I don't want anything to happen to her, but if you make one more move, he may kill her. Just listen to me."_

_Stiles slammed the ground with his fist, realizing that Scott was probably right._

_In the middle of the lacrosse field, stood Jackson, err- Jackson turning into the Kanima more or less. In his right hand, he held up Sam by her neck before throwing her near the stands where she landed with a thud._

_She got up slowly, wiping the blood off her mouth. He had thrown her mercilessly around the field plenty of times and everytime she could feel her body growing weaker and weaker._

_"Jackson," she spit out blood "please don't."_

_She pushed herself off the ground, albeit barely, and mustered her strength to start running, more like limping towards the woods where maybe she could lose him. Yet, within seconds, he used his tail and wrapped it around her body, throwing her back into the middle of the lacrosse field._

_She screamed out in agony from the impact of her body on the ground, clutching her left knee in pain._

_Stiles jolted but Scott held him down again._

_It took all of Sam's energy not to curse out Jackson, or the Kanima, or whatever he was in that moment. She gritted her teeth before using her right leg to kick him in the face._

_Bad move._

_Suddenly he grabbed her by her throat and raised her in front of him off the ground, his nails slowly digging into her neck little by little._

_Stiles writhed beneath Scott, hoping that Jackson wouldn't do anything and just let her go._

_"Scott," Stiles begged, not being able to take this any longer. He could only imagine how Sam felt in that moment. "Please."_

_"Not yet."_

_"Scott, he's hurting her."_

_"We both know how strong she is, she can take it."_

_"Well I don't know if I can take this." Stiles said, pushing Scott off of him and making a run for it down the field._

_Scott was surprised by how strong Stiles was, but nonetheless had to chase after him yet again._

_The Kanima's nails dug even more into her neck with each passing second. Her vision was slowly starting to fade and every breath she tried to take was becoming much more difficult than the last. "Jackso-"_

_And suddenly, the warm, red fluid started flowing down her neck and everything went black._

Stiles shot up in his bed. His whole body felt like it was on fire and he kicked the covers off. He rubbed his eyes with his hands out of confusion. Stiles paused and looked at the photo of his nightstand of him and Sam, joking around at Scott's house. "I promise."

* * *

If there was any confusion while reading, let me know and I'll do my best to clear it up. If you'd like to contact me about anything or have any ideas or questions, you can always pm here!

As stated before, comments, questions and constructive criticisms are always welcome and appreciated. Thank you so much for reading and hope you have a wonderful day! See you next time :o}


	4. Chaos Rising

Disclaimer: I do not have any affiliation with Teen Wolf or the characters, nor do I own them. I only own my characters.

Hi guys :o) Thanks for reading the last chapter, I really appreciate it. Things are going to start taking off real soon, not that they haven't already, and there might be some confusion, but everything will be explained in time.

Also, comments, questions and constructive criticisms are always welcome and appreciated. It really means a lot to me when you guys leave reviews because, not only do they put a smile on my face, but they also let me know whether or not you like how this is going. The reviews kind of let me know whether or not I'm doing my 'job' so to say, which is to leave you guys excited for the next chapter and really interested in the story. Anyway, thank you so much and I hope you enjoy this chapter! :)

* * *

Sometimes the beauty in life is the unknown. Sure it can be scary, but it can also be beautiful because the unknown allows you to create. It allows you to become whoever you want, do whatever you want and live however you want. That is, if you're not afraid.

But fear, fear strikes many and when it does, they turn to comfort and living lives of assurance and safety. Some people on the other hand look at fear and laugh while others run scared from it.

Do you run from fear or do you run right through it, cutting it open and exposing it?

Sam did both.

She was both fearless and fearful.

There were times she could look even a killer in the eyes and not be terrified and other times she could look at herself in the mirror and be afraid of who she was.

A cold breeze hit against her olive skin and she tightened the cardigan around her body. Opening her eyes, she gasped.

"What the he-"

In the middle of the woods she stood with little recollection as to how she got there.

And then she was back in her warm, soft bed, sleeping soundly.

"RISE AND SHINE! TODAY'S A BRAND NEW DAY!"

"Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." She groaned, turning around on her other side to continue sleeping.

"That's the spirit!"

"Mom, can I please just not go to school?" Sam moaned, covering her face with a pillow. "I'm sick," she fake coughed "see?"

"Yeah okay and I'm Beyonce. Good one."

"Really? From this lighting you look more like the Pope." Sam had already sat up in her bed, rubbing her eyes with her hands as she adjusted to the light in her bedroom.

Her mother looked at her, giving Sam the eye before pulling off her sheets entirely.

"I'm up! I'm up. I just wish it was Friday again." the teenager grumbled, grabbing a hair band off her desk and tying her hair up in it. She shivered as the window in her room was open and all she was wearing was a big oversized white t-shirt and some black shorts.

"So you could kiss Stiles on the cheek one more time?" Mrs. Kerr pointed out, winking at her young daughter who responded by giving her mother 'the eye' this time.

"I don't see what's the rush?" Sam chose to ignore her mother's last statement and instead focused on getting an outfit ready from her closet.

"You have an extra, extra big day ahead of you. Might as well get up for it a bit earlier."

Sam rolled her eyes and trudged her way into the bathroom to get ready. She stripped off her clothes and got into the shower, waiting for the warm water to hit but instead she got ice, cold freezing water. "OH MY GOD." She yelled, as the water hit her skin and she ended up hitting her head against the wall as she tried to move away from the trajectory of the water.

"Of course." She groaned as she rubbed her head soothingly. "Positive thoughts, Sam, positive thoughts."

Fifteen minutes later, the two were having breakfast in the kitchen with was telling her mom how the night before, she and Scott scared Stiles as he was getting out of his jeep.

"And he almost fell out of the driver's seat and onto the pavement when he got in his seat because the door was still open!"

"_Honey..._"

"What?! He didn't actually fall. He almost did!" Sam grumbled.

The older Kerr laughed to herself as she opened the fridge door to get herself some Almond milk.

"But you should've seen the look on his face when he turned around and saw me and Scott in the backseat. Oh my god. He literally looked like he was about to pee his pants." And once again, Sam was laughing as she took another bite of her cereal.

"How'd you get into his car, Sam?"

"I stole his keys."

"Samantha." Mrs. Kerr said her daughter's first name fully. She was not implying that Sam had done something wrong in taking his keys, because Sam hadn't, but in that she knew Sam wasn't telling the truth.

"Fine, I broke in."

"I thought he updated his security system or whatever since the last time you broke into his car?"

"Nah, it still sucks." Sam answered, grabbing a piece of Stiles' so-called security system, a button, off the kitchen counter and waving it in front of her mom.

Isabella Kerr just shook her head, laughing to herself about her daughter's various capabilities. Not only could she take down a guy within seconds but she was also a master at breaking into people's cars.

"You know one day Sheriff Stilinski can arrest you for breaking into Stiles' car?"

"Yeah okay, Mom."

"You never know!" Mrs. Kerr sing-songed, waving a piece of toast in the air. "Did you guys do anything after scaring Stiles?"

"Um, well I came home and Scott and Stiles went to some party." Sam said as she put her bowl of unfinished cereal into the sink and gave it a quick rinse. She grabbed her backpack and waited by the front door.

"Oh okay." Mrs. Kerr figured her daughter had enough questioning this morning and grabbed her bag of lunch and met her by the front door. "Have fun at school babe!" She said, kissing her daughter on the forehead, and sending her off to school.

"The stock market is based on two," Coach Finstock raised two fingers into the air "principles. What are they?"

Scott raised his hand.

"Yes McCall, you can go to the bathroom. Anybody else?"

"No, no, Coach. I know the answer."

Coach Finstock laughed, along with a few other students and Sam even had to stifle a giggle, only because of Coach's laughter.

"Oh, you're serious?"

"Yeah, it's risk and reward."

"WOW, WHO ARE YOU?," Coach Finstock exclaimed, moving closer to Scott with much enthusiasm. "And what have you done to McCall?"

Scott laughed.

"Don't answer that. I like you better." He repeated it again, "I like you better" but much softer this time.

"Does anybody have a quarter?"

Sam watched as Stiles fumbled in his seat, trying to get a quarter out of his pocket, but instead some shiny square-like plastic fell out of his pocket and landed on the floor.

A condom.

An XXL condom.

Her eyes grew big and she quickly looked down at her notebook.

Coach's eyes widened for a second, before he knelt down to pick up the condom. "Stilinski, I think ugh you dropped this?" He said, handing back the condom to Stiles. "And congratulations." Finstock added.

The whole class snickered as Scott stared at his best friend in slight amazement. Stiles on the other hand sat in total embarrassment of what had just occurred.

"Risk and reward-" Coach carried on, but Stiles instead leaned over to Scott.

"Did Sam see that?"

"I don't think so?" Scott said, slowly turning around in his seat to look at Sam who looked up just in time to see Scott. She smiled at him and looked back down. Scott shrugged his shoulders. "Did you want her to see that?"

"No, no, of course not, no."

Scott grinned. "Yeah, of course you didn't."

Stiles glared and sank lower into his seat.

Up in front of the classroom, Coach knelt down with his quarter and flicked it so that it hit the floor before bouncing up and into his 'Coach Rules' mug.

It landed right in to which the whole class clapped.

"That's how you do it! Danny," Coach Finstock said, ushering Danny to go to the front of the classroom. "Risk. Reward."

"What's the reward?"

"You don't have to take the pop quiz tomorrow."

"Coach, it's not a pop quiz if you tell us about it." Danny pointed out.

"Danny, you know I really expect more from you at this point. Really."

Next, he moved on to Scott. "McCall, Risk. Reward."

"The risk - if you don't put that quarter in the mug, you have to take the pop," he paused, glancing at Danny. "the quiz. And, and you have to write an essay."

Scott thought about it, as Coach Finstock clenched his fist and pumped it right in front of Scott. "Risk. Work. Reward." He opened his fist, blowing on it as if the work had vanished. "No work at all. Or choose not to play."

"But isn't this just chance?"

"No. You know your abilities. Coordination. Your focus. Past experience. All factors affecting the outcome. So what's it gonna be, McCall?"

Scott eyed the quarter, raising it right in front of his face.

"More work? No Work? Or choose not to play?"

Scott put the quarter down on his textbook.

"No play. Okay, who's next! Who wants the quarter?"

Stiles raised his hand to participate in the quarter toss, noticing that no one else wanted to participate anyway. He then slapped his textbook, getting up out of his seat.

"There you go! There's a gambling man!"

Sam laughed to herself about, both, Coach's enthusiasm and Stiles' as well. She overestimated the laugh as Coach had clearly heard her.

"KERR!"

The girl jumped in her seat slightly and pretended to be jotting something. "Yes, Coach?"

"Risk. Reward?"

"Well, sir, Stiles was clearly enthralled by the game so he might as well-"

"You both can do it!"

"-play by himself." She finished her sentence, albeit to no effect. "Okay." Sam mumbled, grabbing a quarter from her pocket and heading up to the front of the classroom where she stood alongside Stiles. It was awkward to say the least.

"Do you want to go first?" Stiles asked, staring down at the floor as opposed to Sam.

"It's okay, you can go first."

He nodded, moving to stand in front of Sam. Stiles grabbed the quarter and shimmied his butt as he got ready to flick it against the floor.

The door opened and Sheriff Stilinski appeared. He gave a quick nod to Sam who nodded back. "Stiles."

"Yeah, Coach. I got it."

"Stiles." Sheriff Stilinski reinforced, this time his tone was a lot deeper.

Stiles finally looked up, straightening his back and looking at his father. He gave the coin to Sam, walking out of the room past Coach Finstock.

"Well then, Kerr you're up!"

"Uhm okay."

She moved up, eyeing the cup.

"Five bucks you miss." Danny commented with a smile on his face. He always loved betting her, but he always lost no matter what. For instance, he owed her five bucks from the other day when she got the paper in the garbage can and like twenty bucks from last year when she beat him to the top in rock climbing. Sam didn't press for the money, but she enjoyed betting with Danny; it was something they shared together.

"That's another five bucks you'll be owing me, Danny boy." Sam smirked. "Better yet, I can close my eyes and do this."

"You're insane." Danny said.

"No, not entirely at least." Sam replied, closing her eyes. She let her hand flick the quarter onto the ground and listened, with anticipation, to the sound of the quarter falling perfectly into the mug.

She opened her eyes, the whole class on their feet clapping for her. Even she was stunned. "How did-?"

"Kerr! I didn't know you had it in you!" Coach Finstock said, patting Sam on the back.

"Neither did I?"

"That was amazing."

"Yeah, it was?"

She was still in shock. The whole 'I got this' was more of a facade as she was actually terrified that she would mess terribly and break the mug instead.

The brown-eyed girl walked back to her seat, passing by Matthew who gave her a high-five. She stopped midway and turned. "Yo Danny, now you owe me thirty bucks!"

Danny shook his head and laughed.

She sat down in her seat, blocking out what Coach Finstock was saying and instead listening to the conversation of Sheriff Stilinski and Stiles out the door.

"But if you remember anything else, you call me. Alright?"

And her thoughts snapped back to the classroom as Danny shouted "Yes!", having been able to get his own quarter into the mug.

"Reward! Now who's next?"

"Sam, now you owe me five bucks!" Danny yelled to Sam, who shook her own head this time.

"We didn't even bet so I owe you nothing and you'll like it."

Danny stuck his tongue out at her and sat back in his seat.

"Greenberg, put your hand down you don't even have a chance."

Allison stared at the scar on her hand, drawing it onto a blank sheet of paper in her notebook. Lydia, in the meantime, seemed to be invested into one of her textbooks.

Sam on the other hand was too busy daydreaming when Matthew dropping his textbooks on the table snapped her back to reality.

"Sorry," he said, shyly "I didn't mean to wake you."

Sam smiled at the boy across from her "It's okay, I wasn't sleeping, just thinking."

"About what?" He asked, taking a seat at the table.

Allison and Lydia, as well as Matthew both looked at her and she immediately felt nervous. "Um, food?"

"Food?" He asked again, laughing at Sam's comment.

"Sure?"

"Ah." He nodded, opening his trigonometry textbook to start his homework.

"Those scars of yours," Sam pointed to Allison and Lydia's arms "I've seen them before."

Allison looked up from her drawing and at Sam. "You mean, you've seen these scars before?"

"I did, but I can't remember where."

"Oh, I know where it is." Matthew interjected.

"Really?"

"Yup! It's like this old abandoned bank or something I think. I saw it on the way into town."

Allison craned her head to the right in interest, thinking about Matthew's answer before typing it into the laptop in front of her.

"I want one."

Sam looked at Lydia who was staring at the two new twins standing by the bookcase.

Two hotshots.

Sam didn't like them. They gave off bad vibes.

"Which one?" Allison asked with a cute smile on her face.

"The straight one, obviously." Lydia replied matter-of-factly, taking a sip of her coffee. Sam and Matthew laughed at her response, before turning to look back at the two twins.

Ethan turned his head, watching Danny. Danny watched him too, but failed to notice another guy standing up which resulted in Danny dropping his books all over the floor. Awkwardly, Danny looked back at Ethan as he made his way over to an empty table.

Sam winked at him and Danny rolled his eyes, clearly embarrassed by what had just happened.

"What if it's not a symbol?" Allison said, tracing her fingers over Lydia's coffee cup "What if it's actually a logo?"

Allison looked up.

"She's already making her move." Sam commented as she flipped through her notebook to a clean page. "You should've known she would've been up and at it that fast."

"She's quick." Matthew added.

"You don't know the half of it." Allison joked. She put down the cup and typed in 'Beacon Hills business logos' into her computer, waiting for the results to show up.

"Scott, I don't care. This girl...," Stiles raised his left hand and did a rolling motion with it "our moms were best friends before mind died, alright? We used to take frickin' bubble baths together when we were three. I gotta find her."

"Yeah, then we need Isaac to remember."

"How? Peter and Derek couldn't do it. You know any other werewolves with a better trick?"

Scott stopped, causing Stiles to turn back around. "Maybe not a werewolf, but somebody who knows a lot about them."

"You know," Matthew said as he walked with Sam out of the high school "I could make you laugh easily. I'm pretty funny."

"Oh really?" Sam raised her eyebrows.

"Yeah." Matthew said, stopping in front of Sam and thus, causing her to stop as well. "Okay, so have you heard the joke about the butter?"

Sam laughed already, only because he was about to tell her such a corny joke.

"See!" He pointed at her smile before she covered her mouth with her hand.

"No, I don't see!" She burst out laughing again. "I'm only laughing because you're about to tell me a corny joke and I can't believe you're actually trying to do that. And yes I have heard the joke about the butter but you better not tell me cause it might spread."

Matthew laughed and the two started walking again in the schoolyard. They simultaneously looked up at each other, smiled and started laughing again. "Promise me one thing?"

"Anything." Matthew said, with a dead-serious tone in his voice.

"You're never going to become a comedian." And with that Sam took off down the sidewalk.

"HEY!" Matthew yelled, following in her pursuit.

Isaac took off his shirt, taking a deep breath as he stared at the tub filled with ice to the brim before him. He stepped in, letting out a slight groan of desperation and frustration. Scott and Derek grabbed his shoulders individually and pushed him underwater with the water spewing out onto the floor.

In seconds, he pushed himself back up, letting out a huge roar as his amber eyes stared up at the ceiling.

"Get him back under." Dr. Deaton ordered.

Scott and Derek struggled with Isaac as he began yelling and shaking in the tub. Stiles watched,grabbing onto Isaac's legs to keep him down.

"Hold him."

"We're trying!" Derek yelled back.

And with one last struggle, Isaac went stiff and stopped moving completely. All four men outside the tub watched as Isaac rose to the top, letting out a deep breath.

"Now, remember. Only I talk to him."

"Pete, the cinnamon swirls are running out!" Sam yelled, as she rang up another customer. A few minutes passed and neither Pete nor her mom had come out of the kitchen. "One moment," she told an elderly lady, as she ran into the kitchen to find Pete bandaging up her mother's left hand.

"What the hell happened?"

"I forgot to put my mitt on when I was going to get the new batch of cinnamon swirls and slightly burned my left hand."

Sam sighed. She ran over to her mom where she took over bandaging her hand to allow Pete to get the new batches of cookies and cupcakes out of the kitchen and into the display cases.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked, finishing off the bandages and cutting off the extra pieces.

"I'm always okay, darling. Go, I'll be fine." Mrs. Kerr hopped off the counter and onto the floor, blowing at the bandage.

"Be careful. Love you." Sam mumbled, walking back out the kitchen to the cash register to serve the next dozen or so customers that were lined up.

A few hours passed and finally, Sam took off her apron and placed it near the kitchen door.

"Have a great evening, Pete! See ya at home, Mom!" Sam shouted, as she left the bakery with Matthew by her side.

The boy had offered to stay at the bakery and help out with the customers when Sam needed him to; on the other hand, when she didn't need help, he worked on his homework at a table near the register.

"You make a good cashier person."

"Thanks, I know."

"Well, a bit cocky are we?" Matthew chuckled as the two walked in the night, towards Sam's house.

"Nah, a lot cocky."

"I see."

The two laughed together and continued walking down the path.

"Today was a long day! I can't wait to go home and sleep."

"Same, same. I just want to go to bed and sleep until Saturday."

Sam nodded in agreement with Matthew's statement.

"Remember when you helped me with that trig problem like an hour ago? The shortcut you did for it ended up getting the right answer even though I did it the long, technically right way, and got the wrong answer."

"What can I say? I'm a trigonometry genius."

"I guess you are even though you said you were bad at it. Or did you lie about that?"

"You know I was just joking about the trigonometry genius part. mean I was good at i-"

"Let me guess A+ in the class?"

"A."

Matthew raised his hands in front of him in a defeated-like manner. "I knew it. You and all your friends are like geniuses."

"Lydia's a genius. She has like an IQ of 170 or something. I'm just Sam, no genius at all."

"No, no you can't say that. I mean, I don't believe academics or grades determine someone's intelligence, but-"

"I agree." Sam added.

"But, I do think you're very smart. I can see it."

Sam blushed. She was happy that was dark out because then Matthew wouldn't notice the sudden flush of color in her cheeks.

"I bet you finished all your homework at lunch."

Sam pondered for a second. "Um no, I didn't d- no you're right, I did finish it all at lunch."

"Do all you guys do your homework at lunch?"

"I know Lydia's like done before first period even starts," Sam joked "but Allison and I usually would do it together at each other's houses. I guess it's only because it's the start of the year so we haven't gotten too much homework just yet. Wait until it's finals week."

"What about the others?"

Sam looked at Matthew. "Others?" She asked.

"Yeah, like Scott, Danny, Stiles?"

She made an 'O' shape with her mouth, shaking her head in understanding what he had just said. "Danny usually finishes it at home, umm, we did trig homework together last year at his house. That's part of the reason I was so good at it. He's really great at trigonometry and math in general. Umm, Scott,. Well Scott," she laughed "last year was a big year for him so you should know that but um he barely did his homework and usually I'd do some of his for him so he wouldn't fail the class."

"That was really nice of you." Matthew remarked, as he glanced at Sam.

"Thanks, but you don't have to say that. I did it because I couldn't see him fail and I felt bad for him. He had a tough year and a lot of crap was happening to him that he didn't deserve."

"And you didn't?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Sam, it does matter. You, above anyone else, should come first."

"It really isn't a big deal plus he's one of my closest friends and I love him like a brother."

Matthew didn't say anything this time, figuring it would be better to drop the subject than cause some sort of problem.

"And Stiles," she continued "he's a very smart kid. Smart in a way you probably have never seen before in your life. He can probably tell you the history of pez dispensers in five minutes. One time," she smiled to herself as she recalled the memory "we were buying ice cream and he just randomly said some fact about how's ice cream is made. He's full of surprises but he's smart in this way that I - I can't explain it but he's smart."

"You too seem really close." Matthew brought up.

"We were.." Sam said dryly.

"How co-"

"Well I guess we're here." Sam cut him off "Thanks for walking me home."

"No problem." He answered. He glanced down at his shoes. "Listen I'm sorry if I said anything," he looked back up at Sam "that made you upse-"

"I'm not upset."

"Woah."

"What?"

"Your eyes."

"My eyes?" She asked, holding her fingers to her eyes to see what he was talking about.

"They just changed?" Matthew said as he reached his hand to see. His fingers rested on hers gently causing the butterflies in Sam's stomachs to increase. "Um never mind." He said as he took his hand back and scratched his head in bewilderment.

"They changed colors. Like they turned yellowish orange sort of? Maybe red?"

Her heart beat sped up just a little bit faster. That sounded too familiar.

"I think you're just tired. I know I see weird things like that when I am. I'll see you tomorrow though, okay?"

"Yeah, I'm probably tired. I'll see you tomorrow, Sam."

The two hugged for a few moments, each pulling away slowly. For a second, Sam watched as Matthew's eyes darted towards her lips and she quickly looked away, pretending she hadn't noticed. "I, uh, I'm gonna go in now?"

He nodded his head. "Goodnight, beautiful." He started walking and then stopped. "Did I just-?"

"Yeeeeeah."

"I meant Sam. Goodnight Sam." He stood there for a moment before turning back around and walking away.

"Goodnight." Her voice trailed off as she walked into her house and closed the door behind her. The brunette rested against the door momentarily, taking a few deep breaths as millions of thoughts raced through her mind. She dropped her bag onto the floor and made her way through the house.

"Something's wrong." She said aloud, stopping in her tracks. The house was dark. And the only light that was shining was that of the full moon onto the hardwood floors through the balcony doors, which lead towards the backyard. Sam inched closer and looked up at the moon, feeling the adrenaline kick in like it had a few nights ago.

A full moon rarely ever meant good things. It almost never meant good things.

Yet she didn't stop herself when she ran up to her room and grabbed the gun that she kept underneath her bed. It was the same gun that she hadn't touched since the last time she went training with her father. He never told her what he was training her for, but at this moment she had a feeling there might've been a reason for it. And she certainly didn't stop herself when she grabbed her bow and arrow that was right next to the gun. Something was wrong and Sam was going to figure out what it was.

"Silver." She said tracing her fingers over the the gun. "Hopefully I won't need to use this tonight."

She ran downstairs and decided it would be better if she stopped questioning her every move. She didn't question herself when she began to open the balcony door, or when she was walking towards the woods or even when she was running through it as fast as she could.

Something in her was telling her to run and to run fast.

"Got one!"

Sam peered from behind a tree as she saw a boy, catch a firefly in his jar, proudly showing it off to his sister. She smiled at how happy the boy seemed to be with his catch. It reminded her of another memory.

_"Stiles, look I got three!" Sam exclaimed, as she looked into her jar of fireflies._

_"Yeah, well I got fo - oh no, no, no."_

_She watched as Stiles swung his arms around. The fireflies had gotten out of his jar and were now flying around him. Sam ran towards him, trying to help Stiles get rid of the fireflies that clearly seemed to be attacking him._

_She swatted at one but ended up slapping Stiles. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry."_

_"That'll leave a mark." He retorted sharply as he brought his hand up to his cheek to rub the spot where Sam had slapped him._

_"How about this one?" Sam slapped him on the shoulder this time and he let out a painful 'Ow'._

_"Oh that's it, you're on!" He furrowed his eyebrows and Sam took off with Stiles chasing her from behind._

The girl, who was his sister Sam guessed, seemed none too pleased. "What are you doing, dumbass? You're supposed to put holes in the lid. Otherwise you'll kill them."

Sam scoffed. 'What a nice sister you have.'

"Do I have to let him go?"

"Do you want him to die?"

The two ran off, each in separate directions, trying to catch more fireflies into their jars. The little boy almost caught one, but watched in amazement as the firefly quickly flew up and out of the boy's reach.

Sam continued watching from behind the tree, quietly, so that the two kids wouldn't notice her. But something was wrong. She could feel it.

Someone else was out there and they weren't human.

Suddenly, the boy was staring off into the distance. His shoulders had slouched slightly and then he gasped. Sam followed his eyes and watched as what seemed to be a figure crouching down. The figure, a male figure, hissed and snarled at the boy who yelled and started running away.

"Shit." Sam muttered, holding the gun close to her as she watched the little boy, Billy catch up to his sister and grab her.

"Run. Run!" He yelled, as the two started running away from the figure.

The figure moved passed Sam, somehow not noticing her. Yet as she watched him run towards the kids, she recognized who it was.

_Boyd._

Sam pushed off the tree and started running after Boyd. He was getting far too close to the kids and she knew it would be vastly difficult to fight him off considering he was in his element. She grabbed the gun, not caring that it would waste a bullet and shot at a branch. It came off, falling on top of Boyd's back which caused him to fall to the ground with the branch pinning him down. Sam quickly ran past him and towards the kids, shooting at another branch which fell onto Boyd's back.

He growled even louder and for a second, Sam was scared but she shook it off, realizing that she had to save the kids. The two locked themselves into a metal shed before Sam could reach them.

"Crap." Sam muttered, slapping her thigh. She ran around to the other side of the shed and got on her knees. She figured she could do an attack on him with her weapons and give the kids more time to escape.

The metal shed started to shake and Sam realized what Boyd was trying to do. He was going to lift the shed to expose the kids.

'Literally everything that could possibly not go the way I would hope, is going that way.' Sam thought to herself, keeping her eyes deadlocked on where she hoped Boyd would be standing.

The whole shed went flying off into the distance, crashing loudly and Sam was taken aback. She hadn't expected him to be this overwhelming. Sam was ready to take the shot when a jar of fireflies rolled in front of Boyd's feet. One by one, they flew out and surrounded Boyd, causing him to sway his arms in a frenzy, trying to get rid of them. She grabbed the girl and was about to grab the boy, when she saw Scott already holding on to him.

"Run." He said, and took off with the boy on his back.

"Get on my back, sweetie. Don't open your eyes until I tell you it's okay. You're safe now, promise." And with that, Sam took off, holding the girl on her back. She followed Scott through the woods until the two were at a safe enough distance from Boyd. However, she heard his roar of disappointment and knew that there was nowhere far enough to be safe.

"You lost him?

"I kinda had to."

"That wasn't exactly the plan."

"I know, which is why I think we should stick together because, trust me, he's too strong, too fast and way too angry for one person to handle. We gotta do this together."

As Scott talked to Derek on the phone, Sam tried her best to calm down the two kids sitting on the fallen tree branch before her. They were clearly petrified; the little girl was staring off into the distance, while Billy couldn't stop shaking.

"Hey," Sam spoke softly, kneeling down onto the ground. "the bad guy won't be bothering you anymore."

"Promise." The girl snapped out of her staring and looked at Sam.

"Promise." Sam said. "If you give me your hand, I can make you feel better."

The girl raised her right hand and Sam held it gently in her own and the little boy reluctantly gave his hand up, but didn't object when Sam held it. "Now close your eyes and just take a few deep breaths."

As she held their hands, she could feel the fear and panic coursing through their veins. And slowly, it started disappearing and tranquility took over. "Open your eyes for me, guys."

They opened their eyes, both looking at Sam. Their eyes had softened up and the little boy wasn't shaking any longer.

"Yeah, just gotta drop something off first." Scott replied to Derek. He ended the call and looked at the two kids before at Sam.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Hey guys, Uncle Scott and I are gonna go talk right over there," Sam pointed to the nearest tree "but we'll be right back and everything will be okay, okay?"

The boy and girl nodded fervently, clutching each other's hands as Sam and Scott walked off.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Scott quickly asked, before the two even made it near the tree.

"Jesus christ, Scott. Calm down."

"I'm not going to calm down, Sam. You could've almost gotten killed."

"Could've, would've. I'm still alive, aren't I?"

"I'm taking you bac-"

"No you're not."

"Yes, I am."

"You said it yourself, Scott. He's too strong, too fast and way too angry for one person to handle. Let me help."

"It's too dangerous."

"Scott, I'm not a little child. I can defend myself just fine." Sam assured him, raising her gun and bow and arrow.

"Where the hell did you get those? And how the hell did you keep up with me? And how did you manage to carry that girl on your back?"

"Too many questions and not even I know the answers. But we all have our secrets. It's not only you. Some are much more dangerous to reveal than others. Let me help."

He sighed defeatedly. "Fine, but I can't promise I can protect you."

"What the hell is with you and Stiles trying to protect me, my god? It's not like I'm running in front of Boyd, bare naked, begging him to kill me."

"That'd be a sight to see."

Sam glared at him. "I can protect myself just fine, Scott and I have been doing so for the past sixteen years of my life."

"Keep your eyes open, okay? They move fast and they're strong."

"Well I move faster and I'm stronger." Sam quipped, following behind Scott.

After helping the kids get out of the forest and to a place safe, Scott and Sam ran to meet Derek near the reserve.

"Who's this?" Derek asked, hands folded over his chest as Sam walked behind Scott. "And why does she have a bow and arrow? Oh and better yet, a silver bullet gun. Let me guess, you're an Argent?"

"Actually, I am a Kerr, thank you very much and I am not here to kill you. I am here to help you."

The name seemed remind Derek of something, but he didn't remember enough to know what exactly it was. "I remember you now," he waved his finger " from that Jackson thing back in May. And help us?" Derek scoffed. "With what?"

"With Boyd and Cora." Sam replied.

"Really? Well we don't need your help."

"You need all the help you can get and looks may just surprise you."

"I've had enough surprises lately."

Sam moved closer towards Derek, clearly not threatened by him.

"Sam, I don't thi-" Scott tried to stop Sam from what she about to do but there was no use.

In a split second, Sam grabbed Derek's arm which was about to push Sam and used it to turn him around and pin him against the tree with his hand behind his back. The impact of his body against the tree made an extremely loud sound which was followed by Derek groaning in pain.

"I told you." She whispered into his ear, letting go of him. "Looks may surprise you."

He turned around, his eyebrows furrowed in frustration and his eyes filled with embarrassment over Sam's ability to pin him down with little struggle from his part. "You look way too familiar. Have I seen you before?"

"Maybe last spring when Jackson almost killed me."

"No, no, not that. I've seen you somewhere else. Someone else."

"I think it's best we focus on what's at hand and that's two werewolves who haven't seen a full moon in months and they're ready to kill anything in sight."

"She's right." Scott agreed with Sam. "Anything and anyone in sight."

Derek nodded, taking off into the night and Scott beckoned for Sam to follow after. The three ran through the woods with Sam not quite realizing the world she was about to step into. Or better yet, the world that always had its eyes on her.

* * *

So what'd you guys think? :)

This chapter was "Chaos Rising" (episode 2) and "Fireflies" (episode 3) kind of merged into one and you _might _be seeing more of that later on!

Thanks for reading and have a lovely day :o)


	5. Who Am I?

Disclaimer: I do not have any affiliation with Teen Wolf or the characters, nor do I own them. I only own my characters.

Hello :o) I hope everyone enjoyed the last chapter! Thanks for following, favoriting and reviewing! I really appreciate it :')

Without further ado, here's "Who Am I?"

* * *

For once, she had a good reason to run. It wasn't away from a problem, but actually towards the problem this time. She was going to try to fix it even though she wanted to fix herself. There was something clearly up. The shooting part she got - her abilities with the gun and the bow and arrow all stemmed from her childhood. She grew up trained to be a fighter but she still didn't understand why. It wasn't like it was going to help her. Only now did it seemed like it would help, but that was it. And then her speed. She was fast, too fast. Scott, who was a werewolf as well as Derek, barely proved a challenge to her and she actually ran faster than the two.

As she watched Scott and Derek jump over rocks and do flips, it reminded her of the tricks her father used to teach her, but a lot less complicated than what she was used to. For the flips and tricks her father would teach her weren't easy. Imagine an eight year old on one of the tallest trees in the woods. Sam was expected to get down to the ground only using the tree and other trees as her tools. While it would seem to the unsuspecting eye that what her father was doing to her was insane, unsafe and irresponsible, to Sam it wasn't. To Sam, it was a challenge and with each passing day, the challenges only got harder and Sam only got stronger. So when it was her turn to get over the tree and branches, she ran faster, using her hands against the tree to push her off of it and flip her into the air. She landed lightly onto the ground, her bow and arrow still on her back and her gun still in her hand. Her eyes looked for Scott and Derek who were both looking at her.

"What?" She asked, feeling insecure about their stares. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, you're fine. It's just that you kept up with us." Scott answered. "That's not easy to do considering we're both werewolves."

Derek inched closer with his head crooked to the side. "Something's up about you."

"Gee, thanks." Was all she said and she looked down at her feet.

God, even now she couldn't help but feel like a weirdo. She hadn't felt this uncomfortable in years and it all reminded her back to her middle school days when two girls, Mindy and Cathy, picked on her for having braces and glasses. The two girls would constantly criticize her and pick out anything they didn't like about her; almost every single day of sixth and parts of seventh grade, Sam felt disgusted in her own body. A lot of the time, Stiles and Scott would step in, much like older brothers and defend her, but she always begged them not too because it was her own fight to pick. God forbid, Sam would eat some chocolate and the two girls would call her a "fat pig" and laugh about it. The summer after seventh, she and her mom talked about the bullying extensively and Sam worked on building back her self-confidence. It also helped that the braces came off, the glasses came off, the 'baby' weight came off and the height came on. Coming back into eighth grade, she was a totally different person and even Mindy and Cathy wanted to be her best friend. But Sam didn't and she turned them down, walked away and never looked back.

"I didn't mean it that way, I was just, never mind." Derek tried backpedaling his way out of his comment, but failed easily. He let out a frustrated sigh and looked the other way.

"Sam?"

"Huh?" She snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Scott.

"Are you okay? You seemed a little uncomfortable." His voice was meek and low as he looked at Sam, his eyes filled with concern for the girl who was one of his best friends since he was a child.

"Oh, no I'm fine I just thought of something." Sam said. She looked down at the ground the whole time, trying her best to avoid Scott's gaze. If she did, she would probably start rambling about how Derek's comments reminded her of bad memories. But when she did look up at him and her gaze met his, she couldn't help but run and wrap her arms around him in a hug. "Thank you for caring though."

He patted her back gently as she rested her head on his shoulder.

"We're not the only ones who decided to stick together." Derek said, recognizing the footprints of both Boyd and Cora.

"Is that going to make it easier or harder to catch them?" Scott asked as Sam and him broke away from the hug.

"I don't know." Derek replied.

"You do know that, while yes they are strong, they are also very weak under the full moon. They just went months without seeing a full moon, right?"

Derek and Scott nodded, so Sam continued.

"The stress their body is under right now is extremely huge. They just don't feel it yet because they're running on adrenaline. Once it dies out, the stress kicks in and they're totally wiped. You don't understand how much energy their body is currently using. They are humans underneath all that werewolf-atude and their body isn't capable of running that much. It's going to collapse eventually and when they do, we'll catch them." Sam explained as if it was common knowledge. "Plus," she twirled her silver bullet gun around her finger "we have something else."

"Sam, you and I both saw Boyd try to rip two little kids apart. I don't think the gun is going to help that much." He turned to Derek. "Are they going to do that to everyone they find?"

"Everyone and anyone." Derek walked past Scott and Sam, and the two gave each other a look before following after him.

She stepped out of her car, texting on her phone mindlessly. Lydia looked up slowly and stopped in her tracks. Where was she? This wasn't the pharmacy nor was it the supermarket. It was chilly and eerie. As Lydia looked around, her body shaking and her breaths jagged, she noticed the local community pool just a few steps ahead. She snuggled into her turquoise pea coat as she moved slowly towards the edge of the pool.

"Oh god!" She yelled, though barely audible as she covered her mouth. There was a floating body in the pool. Her breathing sped up and she looked around to see if anyone was around.

She looked back at the pool, her mouth clenched tight as she stared wide eyed at the body. Lydia inched closer. "Oh my god. Please don't, please don't be dead."

She repeated it over and over, as she pressed her lips tight against one another. It was silent and the only noise that could be heard was that of Lydia's heels as she moved across the stone floor. She bent her legs and crouched down near the pool, holding in her breath as she reached out to check the body. Her lips quivered as she extended one of her hands. Turning the body over, Lydia sighed in relief as it turned out to be a dummy that the lifeguards must have used for CPR practices.

"Are you kidding me?" Lydia mumbled under her breath. Her whole body relaxed as she sat back up on her knees. It was only then that she looked at her hands and found them covered in something red. She gasped, turning to her left where she found an even greater amount of red liquid near the lifeguard chair. Only the red liquid wasn't just any red liquid, it was blood. And as she followed the trail of the red liquid, she saw the dead body of a teenage male in the lifeguard chair, his head angling in towards his chest.

Lydia let out a bloodcurdling scream and fell back onto the tile, staring up in horror at the body.

_"She tried to kill you."_

_"Uh, yeah." He nodded._

_"Why didn't you tell me?"_

_"I'll tell you everything, okay? Anything that you wanna know, but ri-"_

_"Just tell me why."_

_"I- I couldn't," he stammered. "Allison, I couldn't let that be the last memory that you had of her._

_Derek walked up behind Allison, carrying the body of Erica, holding back on his tears as Allison and Scott looked at him._

Allison's eyes opened and she looked at herself into the car mirror. She knew what she had to do. Reaching into the compartment, Allison took out a single titanium arrowhead.

"Emily, where are you? Emily!" Caitlin screamed. Her girlfriend was nowhere in sight. Her shoulders tensed as she heard a branch crack in the distance. A cold gust of wind hit against her bare arms and she tapped her foot out of nervousness.

Heavy breathing caused Caitlin to turn around and come face to face with Cora in her werewolf state. Cora moved closer, letting out a loud growl.

Out of nowhere, Isaac landed onto the ground and looked up at Cora, a mischievous glint in his eyes. He lunged right at her, taking her down with one punch. The girl picked herself up, throwing Isaac up against a tree. As he fell down, he fell face first into the ground. Above him, Scott jumped over him and kicked Cora down. He pushed himself off the ground and looked at Cora. Isaac walked past him and Cora growled at him and then Derek who approached from the other side. He let out a growl of his own, his upper and lower fangs becoming more noticeable. Cora turned and ran into the woods with Derek and Isaac following her right behind.

Scott looked at Caitlin and moved closer towards her, but the girl moved back with each step of his. She kept her hands out in front of her.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"W-what?" Her voice shook.

"Are you alright?"

She nodded.

"You need to get out of here. Okay? Get out of the woods. Get out of here as fast as you can." Scott said, before turning and following after Isaac and Derek.

Sam moved from her place behind the tree. "Hey."

The girl jumped back, alarmed by Sam's voice.

"Don't worry, don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you. You're Caitlin, aren't you?"

"Yeah..." Caitlin's voice dragged on as her mind tried to remember who the girl was. "Wait, Samantha?"

"Yeah, it's me! Hi, how are-" Sam joyfully began speaking, trying to make Caitlin forget about the situation the both of them were in "Wait, that means," Sam whispered, pointing to the tent. "Oh no." It dawned on Sam that Emily must have disappeared and with Boyd and Cora in the woods, it didn't sound like Sam would be giving good news to Caitlin any time soon. "Listen to me, okay? I need you to get out of the woods as fast as you can. I will make sure to do my best to find Emily and bring her back safe and sound."

Caitlin shook her head in understanding, grabbing her bag from inside the tent. Sam helped her out of the tent and rested her hand on Caitlin's shoulder as she told her how to get out of the woods.

"Everything is okay. You are calm and relaxed, nothing bad is happening. I need you to run for a good two minutes up that way," Sam said, pointing west "And then, you will get to a clearing. Run through it and keep running in that direction for the next five minutes and you should start seeing lights and houses. Keep running towards them and go to the hospital. Got it?"

Caitlin nodded once again, running west as Sam had said.

"Now I'm the lucky one who gets to play 'Find your werewolf buddies.'" Sam mumbled under her breath as she took off in the direction Scott had.

Stiles parked his jeep next to Lydia's, before getting out and running towards her.

"Lydia! Lydia! LYDIA! Are you okay?" he yelled as he ran to her near the pool.

"I'm okay. That, over there - not okay."

"Yeah, alright, I'm gonna call my dad."

"I already called 911."

"You called the police before you called me?" Stiles said incredulously, taken offense that Lydia didn't call him first.

"I'm supposed to call you first when I find a dead body?"

"YES!" he yelled at her as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Are you sure?"

"Yup. Throat ripped out, blood everywhere. It's like the frickin' "Shining" over here. If two little twins girls come out of the woods and start asking me to play with them forever and ever, I'm not gonna be surprised."

"Can you get a little closer to make sure it was them?"

"Make sure it was them? Scott, who else is going around ripping throats out?"

"Please just do it." Scott begged.

Stiles put the phone down and inched closer to the body, observing it from the head down to the torso. It was then that he noticed the 'Purity' ring on the boy's fingers.

"This doesn't make any sense." Derek spoke up, with his arms crossed over his chest. "Public pool is all the way on the other side of the woods. We haven't tracked them anywhere near there."

"Derek, they killed someone."

"How are they moving so fast?"

"Derek."

"THEY CAN'T BE THAT FAST ON FOOT." Derek angrily replied. He just couldn't wrap his mind around Boyd and Cora killing a lifeguard at the community pool; it wasn't that they weren't capable, no, it was that he didn't believe they were fast enough to travel such a great distance.

"Derek, they killed someone." Scott pointed out. "Some totally innocent kid is dead. And it's our fault."

"It's my fault."

"Well maybe, it's not them." Sam spoke up as she walked out of the shadows of the trees. Her voice caused Isaac to jump slightly and his eyes started to turn into the oh-so-familiar amber-yellow color she had gotten used to seeing. "Calm down there wolfie, it's just me, Sam."

As he recognized the girl, his eyes turned back and he squinted ever so slightly. And then without warning, he moved towards her and wrapped his arms around her body. "Thanks." He murmured, before stepping back and fixing his jacket.

She nodded and responded with an 'Of course' before continuing. Scott and Derek looked at the two suspiciously, but Sam continued speaking. There was a reason for Isaac's hug and now was not the time nor the place to be discussing it.

"Scott, is right. Like I said before, their body just isn't capable of that much right now. Okay, yeah, they're super-duper strong and psycho crazy because of the months in captivity thing, but it's not like they're "Flash" and they can just suddenly run across miles and miles of land, kill a lifeguard and make it back into the woods without being tired or exhausted. You're humans too, Scott, underneath all that fur and hair."

"Then who killed him?"

"That's what we need to figure out." Sam announced, as she rubbed at her eyes. She could feel the exhaustion begin to set in and the adrenaline slowly start to wear away.

Scott declared "We need help" as he looked at the three people - er, two werewolves and teenage girl around him.

"We have Isaac now."

"I mean real help."

Isaac quickly looked at Scott, giving him an 'Are you serious?' look while Sam burst out laughing.

"They're too fast for us." Scott said, looking at Isaac to show that he didn't mean to offend him. "For all of us." He added as he looked at Sam. "They're too strong. Too rabbid -"

"We'll catch them."

"What happens if we do, just hold them down until the sun comes up?"

"Maybe it would be," Derek paused and looked down at the ground "it would be easier just to kill them."

"Killing them isn't the right thing to do."

"What if it's the only thing to do?"

"I mean if we can't even catch them, what else do we do?" Isaac continued, looking from Derek to Scott to answer his question.

"Find someone who knows what they're doing."

"Who?"

"Someone who knows how to hunt werewolves." Scott answered with a smirk set on his face.

"We're gonna get you to the hospital and figure out exactly what it was that you took."

Caitlin looked down at her hands before speaking up. "What about the other four? The three guys and girl."

"We'll need better descriptions of them too." The female officer responded.

"I know one of them. Her name is Samantha."

Sheriff Stilinski paused and turned around. "Samantha?"

"Yeah, her name is Samantha. She followed after the three boys and girl I told you about. She was the one who told me how to get out of the woods safe and sound. Well, that is, until you found me. "

Sheriff Stilinski listened to Caitlin and tried to figure out if they were talking about the same girl.

"Sir, do you know her?" His co-officer asked.

"If we're talking about the same Samantha, then I do. She's my son's best friend."

The female officer made an "Oh" sound.

"Let's get an APB out on Emily. The other girl too as soon as we get something better than claws and fangs."

"You believe her?"

"She saw something."

"You mean someone?" The female officer tried to correct.

"Ugghhhhhh, it has to be the one with the eggs." Chris Argent remarked as he watched his grocery bag with eggs fall to the concrete ground. He opened his trunk, putting the rest of the groceries in, before leaning down to pick up the eggs. As he reached to pull down the back door leading to the trunk, he sensed a figure behind them and swiftly turned around and pointed his gun at the figure.

"Uh hi?" Scott said, the gun still aimed at his face.

"Do you think this is gonna work?" Isaac asked Derek from his shotgun seat in the car.

"Nope."

"Me neither."

Sam rolled her eyes. "No need to be so negative." She chimed in a sing-song voice.

"So your uh, your sister." Isaac said swiftly. Derek and him both looked at each other and Isaac awkwardly coughed. "Sorry, uh," he coughed again "it's bad timing. I'm sorry. I'll ask later, it's fine."

Sam watched as Derek raised his eyebrows and looked over at Isaac who sunk lower into his car seat. "Or never. Yeah eh, I'm good with never."

"Keep it in your pants, Isaac." Sam mumbled.

Derek chuckled softly and Isaac scratched his neck and pretended to look out the window.

"First of all, why would I care about anyone related to Derek? And second, I don't know this kid Boyd. I don't know his last name." Chris Argent explained, still holding the gun to Scott.

"Boyd is his last name."

"What's his first name?"

"Vernon." Scott replied easily. "And - uh - just curious. Is there a reason the gun is still pointed at me?"

"Well, there's probably still some part of me that wants to shoot you."

Scott nodded. "I get that."

Chris Argent sighed and put the gun into his back pocket.

"Scott, I watched my father brainwash my daughter - almost turn her into a killer. That world - your world, decimated mine - my wife's, sister, father, my entire family. Why would I ever step foot into it again?"

"Because people are gonna die. And because you know how to catch Boyd and Cora without killing them."

"I'm sorry." Chris Argent answered. "I can't help you."

Scott stood in disbelief as he watched Mr. Argent start to get into his car.

"Uhhhhhh, do you think you could do me one little, tiiiiiny favor?"

The older male thought about it momentarily.

Derek, Isaac and Sam watched as Scott got into the car and the two drove off.

"Tracking them by print?" Chris Argent said as he dropped his bag to the ground.

"Trying to."

"Well then you've been wasting your time."

"Thank you!" Sam said a little too loud and all four males turned to look at her. "Oh sorry, it's just I've been thinking all night that it wouldn't make sense to track Boyd and Cora by prints but I wasn't sure so I didn't say anything." She smiled awkwardly at the four and leaned back on the heels of her sneakers.

"That's right." Mr. Argent remarked. He stopped and turned to look at Sam. "And should I ask why you're here, Samantha? Does your mother know you're out this late?"

"Oh, Mr. Argent," she coughed "you know my mother just as well as I do. My mom knows all there is to know without me telling her. I'm sure she knows the latitude and longitude of my coordinates right now. As well as yours, sirs. And it'd be best if you didn't ask that questions. I, um, snuck out of my house to be here and ended up meeting with them by accident."

Mr. Argent nodded. "Very well. I've seen what you're capable of. And as I was saying, there's only one creature on Earth who can visually track footprints."

"And that's man." Mr. Argent and Sam said in unison, and all four males looked at her once again.

"Well, also woman, sir."

The four continued to look at her.

"Sorry." She said as she pretended to zip her lip and throw the lock far into the woods.

"And if you're not trained like me, then you have no idea that - wait, Sam," Mr. Argent said, turning to look at the girl "show us which prints belong to who."

She leaned in, her eyes scanning the footprints and she ran her hands in the air above as well.

"That one is Boyd's and that one is," She laughed and turned to Isaac. "Theeeeeey were Cora's till you came in here and trampled over them."

Isaac furrowed his eyebrow and eyed the footprints. He raised his foot near them to see if Sam was right in saying that he ruined Cora's prints.

She was.

Chris Argent smiled and shook his head in disbelief. "My, my, you really know your stuff."

Sam blushed again and could feel the eyes of Scott on her, but she choose to ignore them and paid attention to what Mr. Argent had to say.

"Listen, I know the three of you are focusing half your energy on resisting your own urges under the full moon, but that puts you at a severe disadvantage to Boyd and Cora who have fully given in. They've put the pedal to the floor while you three are barely hitting the speed limit."

"So what do we do?" Derek asked, not looking into Chris Argent's eyes, but elsewhere.

"Focus on your sense of smell. Actual wolves are known to track their prey by up to a hundred miles a day by scent. A trained hunter," Chris Argent paused, looking at Sam "can use scent to track them. If the wind is with them, wolves can track a scent by distance of two miles which means we can draw them to us, or into a trap."

Mr. Argent grabbed a net, throwing it at Scott. "A full moon does give us one advantage: they'll have a higher heat signature which makes them easier to spot with infrared."

"Thanks, but," Derek looked at the goggles that he held in his hands with dissatisfaction. "I got my own."

His eyes flashed red and Sam rolled her eyes.

"Just remember we're not hunting wild animals. Underneath those impulses are two intelligent human beings. Don't think they can't rely on that human side. They're suppressed, but it's there - reminding them how to mask their scent, how to cover their tracks, how to survive."

Samantha watched as the four males walked up the small hill while she enjoyed her seat from the hood of the car. She laughed at the four, walking in unison as if they were a clique of some sort.

"When's the last time you saw your sister?"

"Nine years. Thought she died in the fire." Derek replied to Scott's question.

"You feel like you have a lock on her scent?" Chris Argent asked and Derek responded by shaking his head. "Scott, how confident are you in your skills?"

"Honestly? Much of the time I'm trying not to think about all the things I can't smell."

"Alright. The problem is when they've reached the woods and hit the residential area. Once they're past the high school, they're right in the middle of Beacon Hills."

"They're not gonna kill everything they see, are they?" Isaac asked.

"No, but there is an important difference to recognize. Wolves hunt for food and at a certain point, they get full. Boyd and Cora are hunting for the pleasure of the kill. There's some primal apex predatory satisfaction that comes from the ripping of warm bodies to bloody shreds and who knows when that need gets satiated?"

"We can't kill them." Scott piped in. He couldn't let two other people die.

Derek turned. "What if we can't catch them?"

"Then maybe we just need to contain them. There's no in the school at night is there?"

"Wanna trap them inside?"

"If there's some room with a strong enough door, no windows or access to the outside."

"What about the boiler room? It's just one big steel door." Isaac piped up.

"You sure the school's empty?"

"It has to be. There can't be anyone this late, right?"

"Scott, there's someone in there." Sam said, causing all four to turn around as she was behind their backs.

"How do you know?" Derek asked, raising one of his eyebrows. He hadn't warmed up to Sam and it would probably take awhile for him to do so. She just seemed too questionable for him.

"I can feel it."

Derek laughed sardonically, and once again, folded his arms across his chest. "You feel it?"

"Laugh all you want, but I get this feeling that someone, a woman, is in there. I don't know who," she said as she looked at Mr. Argent for some sort of approval, "but I can feel a body is in that school."

Mr. Argent let out a deep breath. He wanted to believe Sam but there were too many things at risk.

Chris Argent set an ultrasonic emitter into the ground like a stake and looked up. "These are ultrasonic emitters. It's one of the tools we use to corral werewolves - push them into a direction we want them to run." Chris Argent pressed a button and the emitter lit up. "Gives off a high-pitched frequency that only they can hear."

Isaac, Derek and Scott all pressed their hands against their ears in pain while Sam watched.

"No kidding!"

"These are gonna drive them to the school?" Derek asked as Mr. Argent gave out the emitters.

"And then it's up to you to get to the basement."

Isaac perked up. "Does anyone else want to rethink the plan where we, uh, just kill them?"

"It's going to work." Scott said determinedly. He looked at Derek. "It'll work."

"Wait, Sam, what are you doing?" Scott turned around and asked Sam.

She hadn't heard him as she was too busy looking out into the distance at the school.

"Sam!"

The girl blinked and looked back at Scott. "Yeah?"

"What are you going to do?" He asked raising the emitters and waving them in the air.

Derek and Isaac took off into their own respective directions and the only people left were Scott, Mr. Argent, and Samantha.

"Um," she looked at Mr. Argent "you don't mind if I take one, do you?"

"Be my guest."

"Well then," Sam grabbed an emitter and looked at it closely "I guess it's time to play a little bit of cat and mouse then. Or, er, werewolf and human." She corrected herself and smiled.

"Go, go," she motioned to Scott. "I'll be fine, promise."

Scott didn't move and just looked at her. His mind raced with thoughts of Boyd or Cora catching her and just ripping her to shreds. He noticed her calm demeanor and realized it was Sam, one of his best friends. He should be more worried about him getting caught by Boyd and Cora than her. If anything, Boyd and Cora should be worrying about her catching them.

"Be careful." He said, resting his hand on her shoulders. She nodded and that was enough for him to turn and run into the woods.

"Sooooooooooooo," she dragged out, turning on her heels to face Mr. Argent "what do I do now?"

"What you do best."

She chuckled and looked at the emitter. "See you soon!" She exclaimed, taking off into the woods.

It was eerily quiet as the teenager ran through the woods. At one point, she had grabbed onto a tree branch with both hands and did a flip off of it but landed poorly and could feel tension in her left ankle.

She rested against a tree stump momentarily as she applied pressure to the ankle. "What am I doing here? I don't belong here."

It had finally hit her who she was. She wasn't a werewolf, nor was she some supernatural superhero. Here she was trying to play hero. She was just a teenage girl with what seemed like the entire world on her shoulders at this point. Her speed and strength didn't make sense to her, nor did anything she was able to do. She wasn't supposed to be in the woods now. She should've been back home sleeping.

_"Dad, I don't think I can do this." Samantha said as she glanced at the first trees that led into the woods._

_Today was the day she was going to do her first test run into the woods through a series of trials and tricks her father had set up. The goal was to get through all the obstacles and make it to the rock within twenty five minutes. Her mind raced with ideas of failure and she just didn't think she could do it._

_Alex Kerr smiled and looked down at his small daughter who looked scared out of her mind. He remembered back to when he was her age, just as small and it was his turn to go through with the trial. "Who are you?"_

_She furrowed her eyebrows and looked up at her father. "I'm Samantha."_

_He laughed. "No, who are you?"_

_"I don't know?" Her voice was meek and she suddenly felt like crying. The self doubt set in again and she just wished to be back at home, sleeping._

_He knelt down, getting to eye level and put both of his hands on his daughter's shoulders. "You are a fighter. You do not give up and never will. You are the biggest little fighter the world has known and your heart is just as big as your persistence. Boy, are you a stubborn child, but you're also beautiful. You have one of the most kindest souls I have ever seen, excluding your mother of course. I can see it in your eyes," he stopped and brought his finger underneath her chin to raise it up so that she would look him in the eyes "that you want to make the world a better place. But don't be afraid. Lots of times you won't understand things - you'll be scared and you'll feel angry and mad and worthless. You won't understand things about yourself and you won't like the changes that are happening. You'll think you're weird or different from everyone else. It's okay not to be okay, Samantha darling. You're different and you always were and always will be and there's nothing wrong with that. What's wrong is being down on yourself and who you are. You will always be you so don't change that; don't try to be anyone else. You are you for a reason. I know you're scared and I know you think you're going to mess up but that's part of life. You won't always get things right, you won't always win, and things won't always go your way. However, that doesn't make worth any less. It is how you react to those failures who determine who you are. You're attitude is your latitude. So when you go into the woods right now, don't think. Don't try to change things. Do what feels right and you won't be wrong." He paused and kissed his daughter on her forehead. "Are you ready?"_

_Sam took a deep breath, looked at her father and nodded. "I'm ready."_

She thought about her father's speech for a few minutes. There was a reason she had chosen to remember that moment of all other moments she had in her mind. She wiped her tears, got up and closed her eyes.

"I can do this," she repeated, "I can do this."

And with that, she took off running into the woods.

"And the hunted becomes the hunter."

Derek stuck the emitter into the ground and slowly inched upwards.

"You really think a few high-tech dog whistles are gonna help?"

"I don't see you offering a hand." Derek remarked as he faced his uncle Peter.

"Personally, I'm trying to cut down on futile endeavors."

"Cora's alive."

"I heard," Peter said as he walked towards Derek. "Let's throw the reunion party when she's not an unstoppable killing machine."

"I can stop her."

"Sure you can. By killing her. Which happens to be the point of this little exercise. Deucalion wants you to kill them. He wants you to get rid of his baggage, making it easier for you to join his pack. The fact that it was supposed to happen in the vault, and not up here, out in the open doesn't change his plan. It just means that Boyd and Cora are gonna kill a few innocent people first"

"And I should just let them? I should be okay with innocent people dying?" Derek responded, his words sounding ever so similar to Scott McCall's words.

"Unless you're okay killing your own?"

"I can catch him."

"Oh, come on how much damage can they do? So they off a few homeless people, a drunk stumbling out of a bar too late. So what? Let Scott deal with them. Let him be the hero of his morally black and white world. The real survivors, you and I, we live in shades of gray. Then again, even if you did kill them, you're still an alpha." Peter bent down, turning on the emitter. "You can always make more werewolves."

Derek frowned.

"And you already have a girl with you that has all the capabilities of one."

He turned back to face Peter who had his usual smirk set upon his face.

"I know there's a girl with you tonight. Tall. Brunette. Brown eyes. I know. She's a tough one for sure. If she wanted too, she could probably take us both down. I know she's taken you down already."

Upon hearing that, Derek clenched his fist and moved a little bit forward towards Peter.

"Woah, woah, woah. I'm just pointing out that you're lucky you have her tonight and that she's on your side. She is a human though."

"So?"

"So you can always turn her into a werewolf."

Derek raised his eyebrows. "What if I don't want to?"

"Oh Derek. You'll soon realize that you won't have a choice, you'll just have to."

"See this around his neck? That's a ligature mark. That means he was stranded WITH something, like a cord, rope."

"Uh, okay, wait a second. What kind of werewolf strangles someone? You know, it's not very werewolfie?"

"My thoughts exactly." Mrs. McCall agreed.

She walked over the the other side of the dead boy's body, turning his head ever so slightly to the right. "And then there's this."

"Uuuhhhhh yeah, man, whaaat is that?" Stiles said through squinted eyes as he tried not to look. "Is that brain matter? Yeah, it's brain matter."

"See the indentation? He was hit in the back of the head. Hard enough to kill him. In fact, any one of these things could have killed him. I mean, someone seriously wanted this poor kid dead."

"Alright, so then this couldn't have been Boyd or Cora, you know? They wouldn't have done all that. So maybe this is just one murder? I mean, maybe it's just some random coincidence."

"I don't think it was just one."

"How come?" Stiles asked.

"Because that girl over there, she's got the exact same injuries."

Isaac and Scott struggled to open the door to the school and when they finally did it was only because Sam had helped push it open from inside.

"How did yo-" Scott tried to ask, but Sam cut him off.

"I got onto the roof and ended up crawling through the air ducts. I figured you two would have some difficulty opening the door so I thought I might help."

"But those are really small - the air ducts I mean." Isaac countered.

"Yes," she raised her finger in the air "the ones that you know about."

He raised an eyebrow. "Huh. Interesting."

"We gotta go." Scott exclaimed. The three nodded at one another and ran out of the building.

"Do you see that?" Mr. Argent asked as Scott ran up to him.

"Yeah, it's a firefly."

"No, no, I know."

"What?"

"It's a uh, uh, it's very unusual," Mr. Argent tried to explain. "California fireflies aren't biluminous."

Scott looked at him in a way that signaled him to explain what he had meant.

"They don't glow." Sam said as she walked up to them.

"Precisely."

"Does that mean something?" Scott asked inquisitively while Mr. Argent stared up at the sole firefly flying above them.

He looked at Scott and as he did, the three heard nearby howls.

"They're coming. They're on the field." Sam said, as she turned and ran towards the building.

"Sam, wait!" Scott called. As he tried to run after her, Chris Argent grabbed him by the sleeve and held him in place.

"Let her go. She knows what she's doing."

Scott relaxed under Chris' hold and watched as the girl disappeared out of eyesight and as Chris Argent ran towards his car.

Isaac stood near the school entrance and suddenly he heard two snarling, growls behind them. "Oh great," he murmured, as he turned around and faced the two werewolves.

The lights and beeping of Chris Argent's car forced them to run past Isaac and into the school, where they met an awaiting Derek. Rather than running at him, they jumped up.

"They're not going towards the school. They're going over it." Scott realized, just as Mr. Argent ran up behind him.

And just as they did that, Sam was waiting patiently to meet the two.

As Mrs. McCall pulled the white sheet over the girl's body, tears began to fill Stiles' eyes. "The M.E. said that this one wasn't just strangled. Whoever did it used a garrote, which is a stick you put through the rope and you just kinda keep twisting an- Stiles? Oh my god, did you know her?"

He nodded softly and Mrs. McCall rushed to cover Heather back up with the sheet. "I'm so sorry. I didn't even think."

"I was - I was at her party," he choked out "It was her birthday. Her name was Heather." Stiles said quietly. He raised his arm and rubbed it against his eyes, wiping his tears on his dark green hoodie.

"Okay," her voice wavered "we need to call your father cause you're a witness."

Suddenly, it all began to make sense to Stiles. As his mind raced collecting and putting all the pieces together, he looked from the dead lifeguard to Heather. He thought back to seeing the 'Purity' ring on the boy's finger to Heather pushing him against a wooden wall in her basement.

"Stiles?" Mrs. McCall asked.

He remembered how Heather told him that she didn't want to be a seventeen year old virgin for her birthday. And then he remembered how she had kissed him on the lips.

"Has anyone else been through here tonight? Any, any other bodies or even anybody missing?" Stiles asked, his words stumbling over one another.

"Uh no, no bodies, but um."

"What?"

"Two girls. They brought the first one in - Caitlin, for a tox screen. And then I overheard that her girlfriend, Emily just disappeared. I mean, they were out in the woods an-"

"Nobody's found her yet?"

Mrs. McCall stammered. "I don't know."

"Okay, first one."

"Caitlin?"

"Is she here? Is she here right now?"

"Uh, I think so."

"Okay, where?"

Stiles was jittery and as he tried to move past Mrs. McCall, she stopped him gently. He was antsy and the older woman could see how Heather was still affecting him deeply.

"Just wait a minute."

"I have to talk to her." Stiles demanded.

"Why?"

"Because I think I know what's happening."

"The rear doors. Someone has to get them open."

Scott added, "Someone has to drive them inside."

"I'll go." Mr. Argent volunteered.

"No, I'm faster." Isaac replied before taking off.

"Wait, where's Sam?" Derek asked.

"My guess," Mr. Argent looked up "I think she knew they would be on the roof."

Boyd and Cora stopped in their tracks as they saw Sam standing right in their path.

"I don't think you want to move any closer." She remarked. While her gun was safe in her back pocket, she had decided not to use her bow and arrow either. Call her insane, but she had decided to use her own hands and body as a weapon against the two.

They merely growled and ran towards her and just as they neared her, she crouched down, pushing her hands in front of her which caused Boyd and Cora to stumble over and fall onto the rooftop floor.

Boyd quickly got onto his feet, charging at Sam. He swiped at her face, his nails digging into her cheek and the blood sprayed onto the floor. Sam grabbed her cheek and upon seeing her hand with blood, her whole body tensed. She punched Boyd straight in the face. As he staggered, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down to the ground.

By this time, Cora had gotten up and she kicked Sam in her back and watched as she fell onto the ground. Sam got up quickly and lunged at Cora, pushing her against an air vent. She punched Cora, twisting her arm behind her back and pinning her to air vent. As Boyd got near, Sam let go and watched as Boyd's claws dug into Cora's back. The girl let out a roar of terror and Boyd stepped back in horror. His eyebrows narrowed and he turned to Sam who was ready for him to make a move. Just as he was about to swipe at her again, Cora kicked at Sam's leg, causing her to fall down and hit her head against the floor.

She tried getting up but by the time she did, the two had already jumped off the roof.

Her head throbbed but she ignored the pain as she ran towards the edge. As she was about to aim an arrow down at the two, she saw someone shooting from the school bus roof. Boyd and Cora ran into the school, where Isaac locked the door behind them.

Allison watched with a smile on her face. Only when Isaac noticed her did she run away, but not before seeing Sam on top of the school's roof.

Sam jumped off, landing onto the ground shakingly. She almost fell, but Isaac caught her and helped her back onto her feet.

"Thanks," she mumbled as she adjusted her bow and arrow.

"Woah, are you okay?" He said, his hand reaching to touch her cheek.

"Huh?" And then she remembered. "Right, um, yeah I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" He pressed. "You don't heal the way we do." He said, implying that the marks Boyd had left on her would be, most likely, permanent.

"I'm okay, I promise."

Isaac still looked at her concerningly.

"I promise," she reassured him again. She grabbed his hand. "Let's go!"

Scott pressed his ear against the door.

"What are you hearing?" Derek asked.

"Heartbeats."

"Both of them?"

"Actually," Scott turned and looked at Derek "three of them."

"We weren't doing anything that bad. I mean, I camped out there plenty of times."

"Right, but why tonight?"

"We wanted to be alone for one night. Emily lives with her mom and I," Caitlin paused, taking a breath to calm herself down "have three roommates. It's not exactly romantic settings, you know?"

"How long have you two been together?"

"Three months." Caitlin answered.

"You wanted to make it romantic."

"Yeah, you know, uh, because um," Caitlin struggled to respond, closing her eyes to stop the tears from starting.

"Cause it was your first time."

"They're gonna find her right? Aren't they?" Caitlin asked, looking up at Stiles. Her heart felt like stone and she clasped her hands together to stop from picking at her nails.

The two didn't answer and Caitlin looked back down.

Mrs. McCall and Stiles shared an all knowing look. Stiles nudged to Mrs. McCall for the two to leave the room.

"Wait, I um I didn't tell this to the police, but I saw someone in the woods."

Stiles stopped and Mrs. McCall closed the door again.

"Who?" He asked.

"It was a few people. One of them was a girl. She had yellow eyes and fangs and claws."

Stiles looked at Mrs. McCall, mouthing 'Cora'.

"And then" Caitlin continued. "There was a guy, he had a beard and fangs and claws too and he chased after her."

'Derek' Stiles mouthed this time.

"And then there was a boy. He had a scarf on and he run after the guy with the beard."

Stiles shrugged. 'Isaac maybe'.

"Then another boy, um, he seemed concerned and he told me to run out of the woods as fast as I could."

'Scott.'

"And then there was another girl."

Stiles stepped back. There wasn't any other girl he was aware of. Mrs. McCall looked at him but he shrugged.

"Who was it?" He asked.

"Her name's Samantha."

Stiles' deep brown eyes went big and he looked at Mrs. McCall who raised her hand to her mouth.

"What does she look like?" He pressed, wanting to make sure they were talking about the same girl. As he moved towards Caitlin, he almost tripped over one of the wires and stumbled onto her bed.

"Brown hair. Brown eyes. I'm not sure what her last name is b-"

"Does she kinda look like a little lost puppy?"

"Um I do-"

"Well, is she tall?"

Caitlin nodded.

Stiles continued to ask her questions. "Does she have this cute little nose, slightly plump lips, long legs, this smile that reminds you o-" he coughed, realizing he was going waaaaaaaaay off topic. "What did she tell you?"

"She tried to comfort me and told me to relax, and I did because she was very soothing in a way. And um, she told me, uh, she told me how to get out of the woods and told me she would do her best find Emily 'safe and sound'. Why? Do you know her?"

"Yeah."

"Wait, come to think of it, I remember her last name. It's Karrington."

Stiles sighed in relief, as did Mrs. McCall. So it wasn't the same Samantha.

"Wait, no, I'm sorry, that was someone else. It was, uhh," she paused, trying to recollect her thoughts "Kerr!"

Isaac and Sam heard the dreadful and enormous growls outside the school and ran even faster towards them.

"Scott?!" Isaac yelled, as Sam ran with him, hand in hand into the school. He stopped and she let go of his hand as he looked out the window. "The sun's coming up." He murmured as he continued to look out the window.

"Scott! The sun's coming up!" Isaac yelled with joy as he grabbed Sam's hand again and ran towards the boiler room. He opened up the door in time to see Scott open the door downstairs into the boiler room and run in. Sam and Isaac ran down the stairs and into the boiler room after Scott.

The three stared at Derek, kneeling down on the floor with Boyd and Cora lying on the floor besides him. His shirt was torn and tattered and his body bleeding. Sam gasped and pressed her hand to her mouth.

Derek looked up, taking multiple deep breaths. His breath was shaky and his body heaved up and down each time he inhaled. "There's a teacher," he paused, taking in a deep breath again "I'll take care of her. Get them out of here." Derek commanded, as he pointed at the two bodies.

In her mind, Sam was doing a little bit of a dance as she had been right in saying that someone, a female, was in the school. On the other hand, it wasn't in the best of circumstances so Sam put a halt to the dance. She moved forward, but Isaac pushed her back softly. "We got this."

She nodded her head and looked down at the ground. She hadn't expected all of this to happen tonight. Hell, all she expected was her typical run through the woods and that would be okay. She didn't expect the fighting or the bodies lying on the floor, possibly dead. And then she remembered.

"_Mom_."

She pressed her hands against her head. Never had her mother crossed her mind one time this evening and even thinking about that made Sam feel like a terrible daughter. She could only imagine how her mother must have been feeling right now, knowing her daughter was nowhere to be found. The cops were probably looking for her. Her mother probably called up all the morgues and hospitals three times in all of Beacon Hills and any nearby towns. Hell, her mother probably managed to track down the president's number and told him to get the FBI out looking for her.

Without saying anything, she ran out the room, hoping her mother was safe and sleeping in bed.

Scott and Stiles looked at Heather, before Stiles grabbed the white sheet and pulled it over her.

"So Boyd and Cora might have not killed anyone?"

"You're gonna wish they did."

"Why?"

"Well, I'm not exactly sure yet. Uh, the other girl who was out in the woods, Emily? Eventually they're going to find her. She's one of them: Emily, Heather, the guy Lydia found at the pool. All three were virgins. And they're all gonna have the same three injuries: strangled, throat slashed, head bashed in. It's called the threefold death." Stiles explained his theory precisely.

"So," Scott said, taking a moment to take in all that Stiles had just said. "if these aren't random killings, then what are they?"

"Sacrifices." Stiles answered, looking up at Scott. "_Human_ sacrifices."

* * *

Let me know what you guys thought. Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful day and see you next time :)


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